For the past two days Seamus and I have been biding our time waiting for the rain to subside so we can get to the grouse covert that usually holds flight birds of woodcock. (Don’t bother calling me a wuss, I admit it; it’s an age thing.)
So far, we’ve been scouting, not venturing too deep into the woods because even when it stopped raining, the trees held so much water, when it dripped from their leaves it felt as though it was still raining.
So this morning, Seamus was going hunting …with or without me. It began when he wanted me to get out of bed. It was still dark and I wanted a few more minutes to just lay there, but as usual, he got his way and after a few minutes of stumbling to put on my clothes, I put his e-collar on him and we left the cabin. At first he went through his usual routine of checking out who’s been in his driveway and the ditch along the cabin, then up the road and in and out of a couple of woodlots and back to the road. All of a sudden, his nose went up and after gathering scent, he turning toward the woods along the road, went straight in and disappeared.
As this is our usual route in the morning, I figured he’d come out in a minute as he usually does, but after a few minutes I got worried and beeped him on the e-collar. Nothing, no response. More beeps and still no response. Then a short tap on a medium setting on the collar – nothing.
I searched for a sign of where he might have gone, but nothing still. So to make a long story short, I went back to the cabin, got the Jeep and drove to the other side of the woods and sure enough, after a while, here comes Seamus, full of burrs, tongue hanging, wanting to jump in the back of the Jeep when he saw me.
The short ride back to the cabin was filled with Seamus standing on the center console, alternating between nosing me and looking out the window. He knew he messed up, but also knew he’d been forgiven.
“She Who Must Be Obeyed” wasn’t as forthcoming with her forgiveness. Not readily making up her mind who she was more mad at – me for not controlling him or Seamus for going off doing his thing – she scolded us both, but soon scratched Seamus behind his ears …me, I’m still waiting to have my ears scratched.
TD
Love it!