Chapter Fourteen Thanksgiving Day Hunt

Tova and I left home around 8:30. It would take us close to an hour to get to the farm in Contoocook where I wanted to go.

Arriving in Hopkinton the town before Contoocook, she realizes where we are heading and starts whining and pacing back and forth because she is excited.

“Only about ten more minutes, girl.”

We pull off onto the farm’s property and park in the area on the left hand side just off from the road. I get my gear on and place my unloaded shotgun on the roof of the Suburban. Tova is already decked out in her orange vest and her electronic collar which is not operating yet. All I have to do is put on her bell collar and start her collar functioning. She is squirming around to get out of the truck and get going.

Hurry up, Dad. I can’t wait to get out there.

“Hold it girl, just give me a minute.”

When she is on the ground I energize her collar and pull my shotgun off of the roof to load it.

There is a patch of low grass we must cross before we get to the first large field. We see all of the corn is cut; hopefully, we can pull a bird or two out of the gullies between the two fields ahead of us.

Tova is about ten yards off to my right and we are about halfway across the grass patch when a hen pheasant comes up right in front of her. The bird flies directly over her head and starts heading towards the car and the other side of the road. Tova is not far behind her.

At this point, I am swinging my gun around in the direction of the farmhouse about one hundred fifty yards away but will not fire. My next concern is my dog chasing that damn bird across the road and possibly getting hit by a car.

I call her a couple of times and she is oblivious to my commands because she is so focused on the bird.

I also whistle trained her over the years and always relied on the whistle before I used the electronic collar.

I gave on good loud long blast on the whistle and she stopped in her tracks. The bird keeps going but I didn’t care. What was more important is my dog’s safety.

I called her back. She took another look at the bird flying away and resigned herself that I wanted her with me and headed back.

When she got back I told her she was a good girl and wanted her to feel she was okay with what she did.

But, she got away. Maybe I could have got her if she came down.

We turned back to the fields and walked about another ten yards and the strangest thing happened in all of my years of pheasant hunting.

A large rooster came up in front of us and headed towards the field. He was an easy shot. Tova was pleased we got him after all of the running she put in to chase the hen.

You could see the joy in her eyes as she handed the bird to me.

Okay, dad let’s go get more.

I couldn’t believe that bird stayed still there all the time I was shouting for Tova and blowing my whistle for her to return. It must have realized how close we were but never tried to take off or run off while I was busy trying to retrieve Tova.

Those two were the only birds we saw that morning. At least we were coming home with one and a good story to tell.