Ducks and Dogs Part Deux

Stardate 2006; First Retriever’s Log, Supplemental

Daddy and I rolled back out to Arkansas with his Daddy this past weekend. We rolled out in a truck, not a four-wheeled horse. Daddy was very embarrassed when I called it a horse on my last post. He is very sensitive about my proper understanding of the English language. Also rolling out were Rick Massengale, his son Jake, and Frazier Christie, one of Daddy’s fellow Adventers.

We went out Saturday morning to the same spot we hunted the week before. Anticipating a slow day, I brought a copy of George Eliot’s Scenes from Clerical Life to read. Daddy said I have to be fully integrated if I want to be a minister’s dog. He also said I had to let the boys out of the basement. I really don’t know what he meant, but I know how it feels to be let out of the basement.

Anyway, the action was fast and furious. Ducks were flying everywhere and the thundersticks were making their boom. When it was all over, I had retrieved close to twenty ducks and, boy, was I tired. That’s me in the picture posing with my fine work. Daddy was so proud; he lost a couple of buttons on his hunting jacket.

There was an amusing anecdote as well. If you remember from my last post, my cousin Ace and I don’t get along very well. Daddy’s cousin Johnny put a shock collar on Ace so we wouldn’t fight. Well, I can’t tell you how much fun I had with that. Ace was sweating like a lovesick boy meeting his girlfriend’s parents for the first time. You can imagine the scene; his necktie is too tight, the flowers he brought her mother are wilted, and he forgot to put on deodorant. I would just sidle up to him and growl. Ace would just stand there and nervously laugh like Daffy Duck stuck in some sort of predicament. After Daddy threatened to put Ace’s collar on me, I straightened up pretty fast, though.

It was a great time in Arkansas and I look forward to seeing all my friends back in Ambridge soon!

Weir sein bettler, hoc est verum,
Silas Browder
Yellow Labrador Extraordinaire