I haven’t been posting up much lately but this weekend was pretty special, so I thought I might share it. Most of you probably don’t know, but Cal is a mutt, he was an accident as his mom was knocked up by the neighbors lab getting into the yard. I actually got him for free. A fellow forester knew I was looking for a dog after getting really sick swimming in the Salinas River in very cold weather in late January. The owner of the mother just wanted to dogs to go to good homes. Anyway, he will be 14 years this February. Last Thanksgiving he began having some issues with coughing and hacking and so we took him into the vet. The long-term prognosis isn’t good, but he is still wagging his tail and eating more than his share of food. Chris and I went down to the duck club for closing weekend and to go to Wool Growers. She wanted to get some shooting in. Last time out, we didn’t see much except fog. Well the fog was back just for us and the hunting wasn’t too good. She did get a few shots at some birds this time which was good. The hunting was slow so we called it quits and headed back to the car. After some thinking and a few texts from friends at the refuge, I decided I wasn’t done yet. Chris brought along plenty of reading material, so we ran over to Mendota for a quick afternoon hunt. We drove to the first pond where he ever retrieved a duck 14 years ago. I left him in the car with Chris and went to see if there were any birds in the area. I jumped a bunch walking out to where I wanted to check and dropped a big drake mallard. Looked for 30 minutes and couldn’t find it, so I made the call back to Chris to walk the old guy out and see if he still had a hunt in him. I figured at worse, I kill him and he dies doing what he was made to do and at best I could have one more day in the field with him. We walked back down the levee to where I had dropped the mallard and on the way there we jumped 3 gadwall. I stoned all 3 and the last one he brings back is banded. Banded birds are fun for hunters because they can tell where that bird has been and maybe how old that bird is. It is fun for hunters to try and figure out where the birds go each year when they migrate. I picked up the three birds and started walking again towards the downed mallard and jumped a wigeon and stoned it. Then we spent the better part of 45 minutes looking for the old wily mallard. I can’t tell you how many mallards he has retrieved over the years, but I can tell you that 9 times out of 10 if we lost a bird, it was a mallard. Well, as fate would have it, we couldn’t find it. Feeling mad, I decided to go hike around for the last 30 minutes or so. We jumped another wigeon and couldn’t find it. We looked and looked and of course if dropped in the thickest stuff. Now really mad about losing two birds I decided to check one last spot where we always have a few birds working in the afternoon. Walked up to the corner and jumped a pair of gadwall. I put all three shots into the drake, watched him fly about 100 yards and then fall. We ran out grabbed him and started heading back to the car. We hit the levee with about two minutes to go in shoot time. I looked up from my watch only to have a big old mallard fly over. Took aim and stoned him. I thought to myself what better way to retire the old boy than with an old green head. Going home one bird short, I has happy as could be; a last hunt with the old boy, 6 good birds, and a band. Couldn’t think of a better way to end the season. As we started walking back to the car, I call Chris to pick us up. As I got off the phone with Chris, Cal dove off the levee and into the tulies. Dam if he didn’t come out with that wigeon that we shot an hour ago. Old dog can hear, can barely see, but that nose, I have never questioned it; it is a ducks worse nightmare. I had him over the years dig and dig at a spot only to come up with a duck after 30 minutes of clawing and chewing at a patch of grass or tulies. This dog has never ceased to amaze me. At 14 he is still doing it. He hasn’t moved much today, but on the way home we drove through San Luis National Wildlife Area’s tour loop. He was in the back wining as we drove past all the ducks and coots. We all hunt for different reasons, but watching a great dog and hunting with friends and family are at the top of my list.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 06:36:25 +0000
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