To the upland hunter who desires nothing more than to walk through the countryside, following his gundogs, there is nothing more difficult to him, than retiring the very thing that has given him so many wonderful memories.  He loses a piece of himself. 

Since she was a little girl, and he was a young man, his pride and joy was wondering the hills and valleys of corn, sorghum, and fencerows with her looking for the opportunity to discover a pheasant concealed in a patch of thicket.  She is his best friend.  And there was no one that could tell him that there has ever been a better bird dog. 

Ten years later that beautiful girl is sitting in the bed of the truck; her face completely grey with age and experience, is on her way to what may be her final hunt.  A tear runs down his cheek when he glances in the rearview and sees her head sticking through the rear window into the cab.  She lays her head on the back of the bench seat next to his shoulder and stares back through the mirror at him.  

All of the memories: from the first day meeting her, when she was so fast she flipped over herself locking up on a chukar, to a field trial where she smoked every gundog there, to each and every stranger he guided hunts for with her, pile into his head.   He thought what was supposed to be her final hunt would be a time of happiness; this was supposed to be a day of celebration.  However, this was tough.  Choking back the tears, he considers all of the wonderful years they’ve had together.  This still hurts too bad. 

At the beginning of the day, he stops and looks at two of his best friends and thanks them for spending this tough day with him.  For it was their idea to hunt today.  They know that he is troubled.   He tells them that he thought it would be so much easier to do this.  He also tells them how this memory will never fade and it will always be those two best friends that shared this valued day with him. 

The three of them hunt hard.  Her weathered body shows her age and fatigue.  In spite of this, she gives them everything she has to uncover her quarry.  Although she has lost a couple steps, she has not forgotten how to hunt, favor the wind, point or retrieve back to hand.  She desires nothing more than for us to be successful today.  She is still phenomenal. 

Looking back on the day, at the dinner table with his friends, he realizes that this day was not about him.  It was about her.  While she lay curled in a ball on the couch, he stares, reminiscing.   A smile comes to his face because he realizes that it would be selfish not to appreciate and glorify her today. 

With over one thousand birds in a plethora of scenes, there are not many gundogs as successful as she is.  Not many gundogs will ever live the life she had and it is this reason that he lay in bed with a smile on his face.

Dedicated with love to: Heidi, Jamie and Bruce.