A change in plans made for a great day

[Phil C]

I got up this morning and read Garys posting on Jolie. This was on my mind as I loaded the truck to go bird hunting.
I started 2023 with 4 dogs and lost two. They were sisters Missy and Bell. We had a lot of great hunts in the 14 years we hunted together. They are truly missed.
Unfortunately of the two I still have, Scout is 13 and has started going blind over the last few years and nothing can be done to stop the progressive blindness.
Due to Scouts poor eyesight he has gone hunting very little the last two seasons.
My plan this morning was to only take Ollie my 4 year old out for a few hours of quail hunting.
When I went to my side gate Scout and Ollie were both eager to go .
I let Ollie squeeze by and started to close the gate, Scout just looked at me dropped his head and tail and started walking away.
Damn that got to me.
I opened the gate and told Scout alright let’s go.and he quickly followed me to the truck.
Physically Scout is strong and I know it's a small window in which he will have the drive and eyesight which will allow him to hunt.
I decided today when I go out to hunt so is he. I don't want to look back and wish I had taken him out more. I would rather take a chance of him passing in the field happy like today than spending all of his time left in the back yard.

I picked a spot to hunt today that was a little more open and had an old road I figured we could follow.
I parked the truck and let Scout and Ollie out while I started getting ready, Scout would run out 30 yards then run back to me, bark then run back out repeating this the whole time I was getting ready.
Scout would not hunt the sides of the road, he knows thats not were the birds are and so he insisted in hunting about 100 yards in to the trees.
Yes Scout bumped into a few things but he adapted well slowed his pace down.
What Scout lacked in his eyesight he made up with it with his nose finding a majority of the birds the dogs pointed today.