Bird Dog

Oh I think there's no doubt about it, we have a good old fashioned bird dog on our hands!

Hello again :)

As of last Wednesday March 19, 2008 Alice was 29.2 pounds. Tomorrow she will be 14 weeks and as I write this she's having a much needed nap after a long walk. Just as we were all heading back up the property from the walk Alice stopped part way and just sat there, eyes fixated west, toward the sweet ferns.

I bet there's a Pheasant in there." said my Husband. I squinted to get a better look but saw nothing.

Alice then got up very slowly and made her way methodically through the ferns. Her movements were slow but fluid, I was mesmerized and awed by her hunting skills. She choose another place to carefully sit down and observe and then guided by instincts handed down through the generations she slowly rose and then POUNCED.

A big male ring necked pheasant took flight and Alice looked back to us.

"Look what I found!" She seemed to be saying.

"Wow," I said to my Husband. "She's only 3 1/2 months old, that's amazing!"

The problem is though, that I have fostered an environment where the Pheasants can safely live. This winter is wasn't an uncommon sight to see 9 Male Ring-Necked Pheasant hanging out in my front yard. There were times last summer that between adults and chicks we had 18 or more of them roaming around. Abbey wasn't a bird dog like Alice is. Abbey spent her life in pursuit of rabbits, those were her thing. Alice though, oh she's a bird dog for sure. Looks like I'll be doing lots more research about properly training a bird dog! Miss Alice not only has me hiking almost every day again but she's making the old brain work too. She's good medicine for the soul :)

Some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

These are from a beach walk on March 16th. We had a snowstorm the day before which lent to a cool contrast - beach and snow. Two of Alice's favourites things so she had a fantastic day, as did I.

Happy Spring!