Curly and Indy!

 Photo by John Hauck

In a lot of ways this has been one of my better years. In the area of hunting companions it has been pretty tough. We mourn the passage of Indy and Curly, two of our hunting dogs. Indy had been with us for 18 years. Really quite unbelievable that she would last that long. She was of course pretty feeble for at least a year, so her passing was expected.

Indy was a real sweetheart, lovable as could be, but terribly camera shy. I could rarely catch her off guard enough to take a picture of her. The above was taken by Larry Bourne while she was distracted by my bird.

We got Curly when Indy was 8 years old with the thought that when she died he would be in his prime and I would still have a pointer able to assist me with the hunting. Of course she stuck around for much longer than that.

Curly was one of the most fiercely independent dogs that I have ever had. He had such a drive to hunt that it was hard to keep him at home. A shock collar with a one mile range helped me to overcome that. He really began to shine when we moved to the high desert. His prowess this year with the Pack Rats was remarkable, but his main value to me was Duck hunting with the falcons. He had no compunction about diving into the water after a duck that refused to fly with a falcon over head. The size of the water made no difference. He could be counted on to find the ducks where ever they hid. Of course being a Brittney, lovable came along with the package.

It really didn't matter what you wanted to hunt, Curly was up for it. I guess the shocking part of his passing was that he didn't look his age, and I wasn't ready for him to go.