She deserves it.....

[threecreeks]

After a two year hiatus from the field, my 6 year old blf finally gets to go hunting again! Maggie has finally recovered from 2 ACL repairs and 2 Miniscus Cartilage removals (3 total surgeries) in the past 18 months.

So, after rehabing since January after the last surgery (bi-lateral miniscus removals) Maggie is headed to a pay-to-play pheasant hunt tomorrow afternoon in Madras. She finally gets to overdose on bird scent for a short 3-4 hour hunt!

I'm thankful that she's finally well. She has overcome so much and when I considered retiring her outloud during a post-op checkup in March, her surgeon leaned over and whispered into Maggie's ears "Behave yourself and get strong. Tell your dad you aren't done yet!" I teared up.

She's a special dog (once in a life-timer if you ask me). I can't wait to see her bounce back when she makes her first retrieve tomorrow.

T.C.

[Hunt'nFish]

Congrats! Glad to hear your taking her out. I'll mummble a little something for her as I hit the hay.
Please post up pics we'd love to see her with feathers in the mouth!
Hunt'nFish

[duckboy]

Good on you,

Get some birds, and let that pup get a nosefull! She has earned it.

So have you.
:smile:

[threecreeks]

Thanks fellas, I appreciate it. I just hope to shoot straight as to avoid the look! (I don't know if she'll remember how but she has, since she was a little puppy, given me the business if I missed a bird).

Our last season together I began noticing a lot more birds flushed towards me, I think she finally became frustrated with my shotgunning and tried to make it easier for me.

-T.C.

[Bugle4em]

Well?
Any pics?

[threecreeks]

Sorry about the delay.....Well, first hunt in a LONG time. The conditions were down right tough on the dogs. We hunted three black labs with mine being the veteran. Temps in the high 70's, clear and cloudless day. Maggie did great despite the heat. No visible hitch in her giddie up thank goodness.

I let her hunt the first hour and then put her up for about 45 minutes before taking her out to find the birds the other dogs missed. She was feeling the heat though as were the other two dogs. What was fun was that the other two were 9 months (second hunt), and four years of age. All three dogs are related by either sharing a sire or dam.

Only ended up with 9 decent birds out of the 16 birds put out for us . I wasn't all that impressed with the host. Three birds didn't get off the ground before the dogs got ahold of them (they looked a little worse for wear) but that's another story. Hunting licenses were NOT checked nor asked about. An "observer" was required to walk along with us which was fine. He had three german shorthairs in the truck that he offered to run to try to find the missing birds. They were big running dogs who ate up the territory. He was pretty certain that his dogs would find ALL of the missing birds. They found one, and it was a half dead hen that couldn't even run let alone fly. I had a hard time not laughing outloud, I just scratched our dogs ears and smiled. I don't think I'll go back there.

But.......back to what is important. Maggie did great and her body held up. I have a little deer hunting to do but I'm planning on a little duck hunting in the next week (she'll go solo next time).

T.C.