Gracie in Her Prime
 

This picture was taken two seasons before Gracie left us. Gone but never to be forgotten.

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Just beautiful Dean, Gracie that is :) You were so lucky to have had the time with her that you did.

Dean I took my setter to the vet yesterday and thank God all is well. He had a plaque on his wall that read (to the best of my memory) the following:

"Dogs die. Dogs also live. They live wonderful beautiful lives. They protects us and they love us and they make us happy. Dogs live every day without worrying about tomorrow."

How true that is. And that is why I much prefer dogs to humans. She was a beautiful girl.

Pretty gal. Always to be remembered.

Wonderful photo. I'd have great difficulty living a life without dogs and have great respect for those bird dog folks that have figured out how to do it.
Was on my way home from the last day of quail season a couple weeks ago and saw a gorgeous Britanny with an orange collar on a leash with a young couple standing in a quick mart parking lot having a tailgate picnic. While I'm a Griff guy I had to stop and see this pup. Yup, they had been hunting. The Brit was dirty with battle scars and a grin on her face and madly wagging stub. Her handlers were both PhD students at Univeristy of GA. He had recently defended his disertation (on quail habitat and quail behavior) and she was just getting her disertation started. They all had been having a fun day. We exchanged numbers, off we went, and all I could think was all the fun dog life they had ahead of them.
Sorry to take your thread off track Dean but your photo, for some reason, flashed me back to that happenstance meeting.

Forcing ourselves to live without a dog like Gracie has been very difficult. She’s only been gone 14 months, two weeks and five days… (but who’s counting?) and we’ve been very tempted to get another. Every time we see a long-haired pointing dog (only through personal preference) we’ll even cross the street to say Hiii and rumple it’s ears and talk with the owner. It seems we’re just making it harder on ourselves but we just can’t help it.
We had the opportunity to get one of Gracie’s grandsons, Dewey, but just couldn’t do it at our ages. That was SO hard!

Dewey -

What a handsome little fella! We aren't dogless (does a Corgy count) but my old lab is gone. I miss him greatly!

Yes, a Corgy counts a lot!




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I'm sorry to hear this Dean she and my Magic can run together until we meet up with them.

A nice thought Eric!





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Dean,

I certainly get your not wanting another bird dog at your age. Elaine and I ponder this same dilemma.

You might check out Frank Jezioro's recent article in the Pointing Dog Journal. Food for thought...

Dean if I had access to a beautiful grouse camp as yours, a good setter dog would be a must have!

We rent a house in Sanibel for a month or two. For the last several years there has been a guy walking a litter of 6-8 corgies, each on a different leash. By the end of the walk they had created a world class mcramay (sp?) web to be sorted out. There was a rumor going round that the dogs were not housebroken. Never had the guts to ask him. No thanks. I'll keep my lab. Thanks

Resting after what she did best.

Gracie was indeed a sweetheart. I had the good fortune to meet her and give her an ear rub when Dean would bring her and camp with us at Hausmanns.

Thanks Phil - That was a good time. Sorry we didn’t find more birds.
Hey, that’s your sweet little DHE 28!

Harold, I think everybody who knew her at Hausmann’s loved her. What wasn’t to love about Gracie?





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Garry mentioned Frank Jezioro's latest article about starting a young pup in the latest Pointing Dog Journal.Frank had two of his 3 setters die young last year. I was hoping to get a female pup out of Daisy if Frank bred her to his male Bo. Frank had been given Bo by my good friend and hunting partner Mike Weeks. Bo came from Mikes female Peach, a dog that I had given to Mike from my last litter. My 2 setters Willie and Doodle were litter mates to Peach, and Fancy is their dam. I had fussed over Daisey when I ran into Frank at a mutual grouse cover late October, too warm to hunted we had some lunch and ice tea. At 81, Frank still covers the ground in the grouse woods, and can wipe many an eye on the sporting clays range.
I guess I went the long way around to say I think any pup(setter of course) would be blessed to have you Dean, as it's master.

Gracie’s grandson, Dewey, is progressing nicely in his training. I’m glad he went to a caring hunting family.


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Thank You Harold !





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Dean, get another setter. You'll be glad you did.

You could always opt for a started Setter. A dog 1-3 years old. You lose the puppy years but you have a hunting companion right out of the box. We got Raisin at 18 mos and she was part of the family and curled up in our laps in about 3 minutes.

Get a darn puppy ! My maternal grandfather got his last dog when he was 80+ .

Sorry, new complications… no can do.






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