oh man, im sorry you had to go threw that, i had to skip toward the end cause my wife said i had a tear coming out. i do know how you feel though, i just recently lost to great dogs. my prayers are out to you and your dog.
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oh man, im sorry you had to go threw that, i had to skip toward the end cause my wife said i had a tear coming out. i do know how you feel though, i just recently lost to great dogs. my prayers are out to you and your dog.
My heart goes out to you and your companion. I'm glad your both OK.
wow im so glad you are both okay. I know how much my lab means to me so i can only imagine having to go through that.
Saying a prayer thanking God for taking you and Ace in his arms and taking care of you both. God is the great healer. Thank you for sharing. Ace is a beautiful boy!
I sure hope things are still going well for Ace and you. I couldn't get through your post without my eyes watering either. We're all bound by the love we share for our dogs and the true unselfish desire they have to please us. Thanks for sharing your experience, I'm sure it wasn't easy to write and express things so vividly. You will have probably helped prevent others from unknowingly putting their dogs into the same type situation.
Tears where streaming down my face from under my glasses and landing all over my key board...All the while I tried to be quiet and maintain composure here at work in my cubical...
It was great to read this thread so late...so I get the complete story at one time...What a GREAT ENDING! or should I say a new beginning...Hope you get many, many years with that wonderful dog!
I did a little cold weather hunting on a trip to WA this year...My girl wore an old classic dog vest and did not seam to mind the cold...The air temp was about 10 and the water was bit warmer...
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...dHunt08006.jpg
Bumping to the top as a reminder with the coming of duck season and cooler temps.
Hope everyone has a great duck season. Run it to the plug!
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/matt_and_ace.jpg
Hey Matt, I remember this story when you first posted it!! It really brought tears to my eyes and opened up quite a bit of common sense for me. No hunt or bird is worth putting our dogs in jeopardy for. I'd imagine that your bad experience has also opened up every readers minds also. I'm so happy for you and Ace that everything came through for you guys. He's lookin' great in the picture above, and still has that cool head tilt going on for pictures, that's great!! I'm curious, it has been a couple of years since hypothermia set in on Ace, do you notice any effects from that today? I'm glad that he is still here to retrieve birds for you. Have a safe and successful duck season, Matt!! By the way, you have some awesome pictures, keep them coming!!
I did not specifically remember this story but the effect it had on me was profound. 2 Weeks ago I was hunting in N. Dakota with my older dog Diamond. She is near 11 yr old but still raring to go. However, I am beginning to see her limits better than she does. We were hunting a pothole that was very shallow, had partially froze over overnight but had open spots and lots of birds. We had to hunt the edge and were able to pull over a few birds. After a some dismal shooting by me this week, had a mallard swing by, finally took my time standing, mounting and swinging thru and appeared to stone the bird. Made a good splash just inside the thin ice past our decoys, but vision was obscured but some cattails. Sent the dog, feeling really good about my shot for once. But that feeling quickly went away after I realized that she was hunting and the bird was moving. She was breaking ice following the bird but could not keep up. I lost sight of her but could hear her as I got the lightweight boat over to go help. As i got to the area, I saw the bird sneaking into the wind thru cattails. BUT I could no longer hear my dog. Not knowing where the dog was I was not going to try to shoot the bird again and my first priority was getting the dog into the boat. I was beginning to get nervous as I had not heard her for a while and had to yell several time before she got out of the cattails and came over to get to the boat. We lost the bird, which bothers me as it appeared to be a good shot. However, I do not regret my choice. If she was 3 yrs old I would not have been so concerned, but she is almost 11.
Later I wondered why I got SO concerned, then I came here and re-read this story. So even though I did not remember, it had a strong effect on how I handled my dog in those icy conditions. Next afternoon we hunted that same pothole from inside boats, completely ice free and 65 degrees. Funny how quick it can change.
Lots of good thoughts sent Ace's way! Snakes in Florida, cold water in your area. Always something to take away our fur friends.....Give Ace a belly scratch from me when you see him.
tlc