"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." ---Theodore Roosevelt 1910

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Laci...my duck dog

Laci  10 yrs old


Bron playing cowboy


2007 River Jumping Ducks

     I have had a few dogs in my life, but none for as long as I have had my chocolate lab Laci. We got Laci when Brody was one. What more can you ask for in a dog.  She both fetches and retrieves. She stays by your side and heels when you stalk and jump shoot ducks off the river. She loves the water. She never barks unless a stranger is in the back yard at night and she LOVES kids. Her only vices are she likes to dig and hide bones and antlers in the yard and she chases cats.

     We haven't done much duck hunting these past five years. I had a hard time shooting them anymore because I don't like to eat their meat and no one else wants too either nowdays. I do recall many cold winter afternoons, taking her down on Cottonwood Creek below Castle Dale and we would jump mallards and teal off the river together. She knew when I talked in a soft voice and was sneaking that we were attempting to jump some birds. She would stay right my my side, watch me shoot and then make the retrieve if she had a bead on it falling.

     I never did have her on too many pheasants hunts. Our birds fell off the planet about when we got her. She has jumped a few in her lifetime. Once we were on state ground(extended pheasant season) hunting ducks and I cut a pheasant track in the snow. We followed it and she went in the thicket and  that long tailed rooster busted up with her jumping up after it. It was a postcard flush.

     A funny time I remember hunting with her is when I thought she was on a skunk in the cattails. I caught a glimpse of black and she was barking hot on its tail. I was yelling and calling her back when I noticed it climbed up a small Russian olive tree tree. What?...skunks don't climb tress. When I  got a little closer, I knew it wasn't a skunk. It was black and it wasn't a cat. It was actually a mink.

     The other day when I let Laci out and we went for a walk. I noticed her hips giving her a little grief and her back is now swayed. It was then I realized she is 10 years old and it made me kind of sad seeing her starting to have some aches and pains as she is getting old . Well happy birthday girl... you've been a super dog for our family!
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