"Come on dogs, let's go hunting." Not just one dog but two. Not much more work having two. They get fed at the same time, go to bed at the same time, and adapt to each other's miscellaneous routines at home, like, for example, keying off of each other when it comes to hearing something …
Home Movies
After the light came We got an early start and headed up the mountain in the dark wearing headlamps for the first part of the climb. After about an hour of zigzagging up the mountain the sun started to rise in the distance. Some parts of the climb were super steep and I ended up …
Autumn Child
When Peat was 7-months-old, we took him hunting with Angus to a place where his day of hunting lasted exactly 15 seconds. Upon arriving to our hunting destination, we let both dogs out of the pickup and before we knew what was happening we saw Peat streaking a 200-yard beeline to a covey of Huns …
Chukar Journey
"Range after range of mountains. Year after year after year. I am still in love." - Gary Snyder Spring break this year, we drove across the West and past many, many mountain ranges in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Montana. I didn't dare sleep in the car or stare at my phone while being a …
Sleeping (With) Bird Dogs
Not everyone sleeps with dogs. We do. One of the purest pleasures I know is, upon getting into bed, having Peat collapse himself onto my left side, pressing his back against my ribs and torpedoing his head across my armpit, his nose inches from my face, and his relaxed amber eyes peering into mine as …
Sequence
Leslie traded her gun for the Nikon yesterday and caught a remarkable sequence on a chukar bust. She actually busted two birds behind me, and Angus went after the lead bird. The bird in the photos is the second bird. When I look at Angus in the third photo, it's hard to reconcile the fact …
The Source
There's a gorgeous but reviled magpie out the window scarfing up birdseed. A Eurasian dove just landed 5 yards away. Peat and Angus are snoozing after today's opener, dreaming of getting skunked because their idiotic "master" took them to a parched desert landscape to look, duh, in vain, for the first chukar of the season. …
Anticipation
We anticipate a lot things. The big yellow school bus recently started up its route again driving back and forth on our gravel road twice a day, spewing a cloud of dust behind it. We knew that would happen, just as we knew Bob would be returning to the classroom to teach literature and poetry …
Angusing
Angus What is it about our dogs? Or maybe I should speak for myself, and - since he can't type - Angus. I'm just in a tribute mood, perhaps because we're in the "holidays," and I'm feeling grateful for lots of things. Angus is at the top of my list. My new job keeps me …