Red Letter Day

[TARNATION !!!]

After a most relaxing tour of several medieval towns on the Mediterranean coast, I found myself back in England looking out the coach window at various sights not to be missed but I was seeing more than the guide was pointing out. With no rifle, bow or shotgun but a nervous trigger finger none-the-less, I followed the movement of a very large fallow deer stag. Magnificent, but only I saw it. I had seen lots of crows but then I started seeing pheasant. They were plentiful, even though "Glorious August" was already two months back. That is the local term for the opening of the season (August 12 I was told). This was the morning of Oct 22 which began for me at 0400 but my body had been deceiving itself for a while. In home time it was Oct 21 2100 hrs. So after the hunter's lust set upon me, I then boarded one of those new fangled contraptions that have no propellers and eventually fell out of the taxi at 2330 hours of Oct 22 at home with a body believing it should be 0630 Oct 23. I snoozed for a while but jet lag did not allow me to totally succumb to what I needed. I putzed around and finally picked up CHARLIE and KYRA from the dog sitter. Wide awake I decided the only intelligent thing to do was to take the pups hunting. Due to jet lag I forgot my manners and grabbed a Baker built Montgomery Ward & Co 12 ga and my usual back-up Winchester 1200. We tromped around for 6 hours. I think the local boys have cleaned out a lot of roosters. CHARLIE kept putting up hens and she was wondering if I had lost my mind. Maybe I did. When, after 3 hours of lugging the heaviest shotgun I have ever carried, a rooster finally flushed, I was on it in a flash. It carried on laughing at me. You know those darn safeties do work no matter how hard you pull that trigger. Okay, let's chalk that up to jet lag. I had grown overly tired of carrying the beast, so I opted for the much lighter pump. Hen after hen. I was now into the magic half hour after sunset and made it to a roosting spot I know. I was anxious but resolved and was greeted by hen after hen. I started the trek back to the rolling kennel, feeling certain that today I was going to be skunked. There was a bit of cover along abandoned rail tracks, so I decided to walk through that. I was less than 100 yards from the car. CHARLIE got birdy and flushed yet another hen. I could tell she too was getting disappointed. I encouraged her to spend a little more time in the weeds. Surely all these hens must have a few suitors left. CHARLIE got birdy and a big rooster exploded out of the weeds with that heart-stopping, adrenalin-rushing almost maniacal cackle for having been disturbed so near bed time. Well he doesn't have to worry about that now. He tumbled from the sky over the tracks and behind some brush. I had made my mark and when I topped the tracks CHARLIE was with the bird already. Now many of you know that CHARLIE has had issues with retrieving. The husky blood in her seems to have killed the lab instinctive retrieve. I stood on the tracks and just looked at her thinking it really doesn't matter if you don't retrieve - you find, you flush and find the downed bird. I am capable of walking the last 20 or 30 yards to pick it up. I stood and watched her for a few seconds and in my best dog speak I yelled "Take it" She looked at me tentatively and picked him up gently and then set him back down as if to say, I have done my job, come and get him. I told her again "Take it" - there's just one more thing I want to add to your job description. She picked him up again and took a couple steps in my direction. Dog speak flew rapidly and approvingly 'CHARLIE COME" "GOOD GIRL" Over and over again. Then she understood, trotted over and let me take that big old rooster from her mouth. And that my friends is a RED LETTER DAY in the life of a guy and his hunting dog. We came home and I slept for 23 hours and maybe today will find my body back in this time zone. Tomorrow I plan to let CHARLIE show me how much she enjoys the new task in her job description. I'll be taking a neglected VH. (I think that allows this thread to be posted here rather than in Off Topic)
Cheers,
Jack