That is about what I thought, I shot a large grouse over a 7 month old pup once.
I had miss marked the fall and the pup kept going to one side while I kept calling him back to hunt dead, after a couple times I followed him and was led to a tailess nearly plucked grouse after his muliple attempts to pick it up
Hang on to that one remaining tail feather, it will bring back smiles for years to come.