Dog daze
Phil Taunton
Friday, July 27, 2007
Tough old times befall the Kansas outdoorsman during the heat of late July and August. Fishing is in a bit of a slowdown.
But who needs to catch fish all the time for an enjoyable outing?
If you want something for the skillet, though, I suggest you concentrate your efforts in the early morning or evening hours. Wading and fishing the riffles, especially in rivers and streams that have settled after the high water, can be productive and offer a much-needed cool down. Letting your favorite bait drift along cut banks and logjams might just be the answer for channel cats.
Early each morning before I go off to work, I visit the pointer pups — Brewster, the chiseled male, and Cassie and Sue, the females — to clean their pens and give them fresh water. Yes, pups, even though they are 13 months old. Just when do pups turn into mature dogs and kids into grown-ups? Or do they ever?
Each morning I apologize to them for not getting them out as much as I ought to. There’s just so many hours in a day. And besides, I also need to help Wifeus get her golf fix. She is the one who hit the Lotto, bought me a new golf club, a sleeve of balls and cooks dinner... sometimes anyway! Hopefully, all that will change. Time is of the essence and retirement is just around the corner.
What can you do now for your pets and hunting companions? First off, fresh water at all times and especially during the heat of the summer is a must. Keep them on heartworm prevention medicine and, if you haven’t gotten them checked, do so immediately. Also, check for fleas and other parasites. Our urban yards are overrun with rabbits and squirrels. They carry all sorts of things that might infest your pets.
I hate to take my dogs out and run them in the Wild this time of the year, even though they would love it. Upland gamebirds are well into the brood-rearing season. They don’t need us out there disturbing them and their young chicks.
I do like to take the dogs to lakes and ponds for swimming and water retrieves. Last summer during one of these exercise sessions, I became alarmed when Cassie yipped and came running back to me with her tail between her legs. A National Shoot to Retrieve Association (NSTRA) field-trial friend had just lost a marvelous English Setter due to rattlesnake bite, and I just knew Cassie had been bitten.
I checked her over and after a couple of rubbings, she licked my cheek and off she went hunting, tail a’cracking.
After any outing with the dogs, I always make it a practice to check them over before I kennel them for the night. I look for any signs of injury, cuts and foreign objects in the eyes, such as weed seeds.
You can imagine my horror when I felt Cassie’s undersides and noticed swelling and odd-feeling lumps! Once again, thoughts of her being bitten by a snake shook my inner soul.
Mind you, all three pups are orange and white with black noses. You can imagine my surprise when I flipped her over for further inspection and found that I had mistakenly checked Brewster for lumps!
And I thought I knew something about bird dogs. No wonder he minds so well and stays close!