doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - OT - My Llewellin Setter Scout

Scout was born on April 4 2008, south of Minneapolis, at High Flyin' Kennels. I was living with my wife and 2 1/2 year old son in Winnipeg at the time. 8 weeks later I headed south to pick up the young pup. My son is the one who named her, from a short list. Scout was on the list because I had recently re-read To Kill a Mockingbird. For young Gordon it was no choice at all. As soon as he heard the name, that was it!

My good friend Harvey, dog breeder, dog trainer and favoured hunting companion, was living in Alberta at the time. I was doing a lot of travel for work. Harvey volunteered to take the puppy Scout that summer and get her ready for her first hunting season. A meet was scheduled for June somewhere in Saskatchewan and I didn’t see Scout again until Harvey and I met up for our annual Saskatchewan Hungarian hunting week in late September. A guy couldn’t have asked for a better started 6 month old. I still clearly remember her first point! But things don’t always work out the way we plan or hope.

Life took some sharp turns for me very shortly after that season and next thing I knew I had moved to Ontario, become single and was parenting a five year old every second week. Hunting and dog work got put on the back burners. But at the same time Scout excelled at being Gordon’s and my companion. Daily walks through farm fields and along the shores of Lake Ontario, regardless of the weather, kept the three of us connected and helped each of us get oriented to our new reality. With each other and the world at large. Scout was determined to escape the confines of the house and yard and occasionally we would get phone calls from concerned citizens. “I’m on the 14th green and think I have your dog” or “I’m the manager here at the supermarket and your dog is in my store”. What a rascal she was!

She aged gracefully and became, in time, a member of my family’s larger “pack”. My ex wife Kim, had acquired 4 dogs and a large-ish fenced property. Somehow, don’t ask, in aid of a better experience for our son Gordon, Kim and I became neighbours. And soon Scout had 4 half siblings....two Scotties, an Airedale and a Bernese. . When I added Daly three years ago, the pack became six. She loved to talk to the coyotes at night on the other side of the chain link fence. When she stayed at Kim’s house, with its kennel and dog doors, she instantly became nocturnal, all the better to hang with the coyotes at 1 in the morning. She even had a suitor a few summers back. Who would come every evening about 8 pm and hang around my house hoping for a glimpse of Scout. And every evening Scout would sit at the front window, waiting for that scrawny, mangey little coyote’s arrival. Both of them were besotted with each other. Idiots! The two of them!

She tried very hard not to make it to 15. When she was 10 she was bitten by a rattlesnake. At death's door and then came back. Two years later she discovered a taste for malathion and tried very hard to kill herself. Again, we were writing her obit when she decided to rejoin the living. And two summers ago, she got into something else mysterious. All we know is that it mirrored the malathion adventure all over again. The vets were as mystified as we were.

As we have sat with her today she has often been surrounded by her pack. They know somethings up. They sit or lay quietly near her. Scout lost the ability to hear several years ago but she can still see. She knows they are there. They calm her as the long permanent night approaches. In times like this one is always concerned. “Is she in pain?” Kim reminded me this morning. Somehow Scout’s pain receptors didn’t really seem to develop. Throughout her life she has been impervious to pain. Remarkably so. This sounds ridiculous but the shock collar was essentially useless. She was headstrong and stubborn. One of the things I loved most about her was that she had her own agenda. It was great when it lined up with mine but she would say that was just dumb luck if it happened.

I’ve had some great dogs in my life and I’ll have more. Scout may not be the greatest hunting dog I’ve owned or will own but that failing is with me. She had the goods. But she was as good a friend as one could have in a dog. I can’t imagine a better one and I will miss her terribly.


Where To Bury A Dog

There are various places within which a dog may be buried. We are thinking now of a setter, whose coat was flame in the sunshine, and who, so far as we are aware, never entertained a mean or an unworthy thought. This setter is buried beneath a cherry tree, under four feet of garden loam, and at its proper season the cherry strews petals on the green lawn of his grave.

Beneath a cherry tree, or an apple, or any flowering shrub of the garden, is an excellent place to bury a good dog. Beneath such trees, such shrubs, he slept in the drowsy summer, or gnawed at a flavorous bone, or lifted head to challenge some strange intruder. These are good places, in life or in death.

Yet it is a small matter, and it touches sentiment more than anything else. For if the dog be well remembered, if sometimes he leaps through your dreams actual as in life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing, begging, it matters not at all where that dog sleeps at long and at last.

On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream he knew in puppyhood, or somewhere in the flatness of a pasture land, where most exhilarating cattle graze. It is all one to the dog, and all one to you, and nothing is gained, and nothing lost -- if memory lives.

But there is one best place to bury a dog. One place that is best of all.If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call -- come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down the well-remembered path, and to your side again. And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel they should not growl at him, nor resent his coming, for he is yours and he belongs there.

People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no whimper pitched too fine for mere audition, people who may never really have had a dog. Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them, and which is well worth the knowing.The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of it's master. [u][/u]


This is my favorite picture of her. Scout is on the left.

James,
You have my deepest sympathy. Where you are, now, I have been before. And, I will be there, again, by my own choice.

For what it is worth, my last dog had a favorite spot in the open spaces area across the street, a small, spring fed pond, which, we could not keep her out of. She would wade up to her elbows, and wag her tail, and fish, although if she ever caught one I never saw it. She chased geese and ducks, and was a powerful swimmer, the best Setter I’ve ever seen at that task. She had time for every kid and mom who ever came to see her, and everyone knew her and what she was doing in the pond. Just being a dog, a happy dog. Gypsy was a truly happy dog.

When I brought her ashes home from the vet, I waded out into the pond and put her remains in the spot she spent 13 happy years enjoying.

A few times a summer, I get on my bike, and ride to the park. I watch the kids on the playground, and then ride to the pond and spend a few minutes remembering my old friend and how much she brought to my life, and 7 years after I got her how she “adopted” my new bride, and two years after that, my son. They went to the park nearly every day, and Gypsy went with them.

I miss her. I miss all my dogs.

Best,
Ted

I believe it was Steve Bodio who wrote his dogs were the calendar of his life.

Me too.

Best,
Ted

Beautiful dog. We love our dogs. We enjoy their companionship, efforts, enthusiasm and love while we have them.

Condolences James for your loss, but memories endure.

Dogs are the best.

Oh my, I can so very much relate to your situation...... I'm scratching the ears of a Setter lady who has just turned 14.......I dread the day.....
I don't leave this ranch to hunt anymore..... and every trip over these grounds with the dogs, I am brought up short by stopping to remember a Point or Retrieve by a now passed campaigner whose remains lie on a Hill west of the Headquarters.
Wonderful tribute to your fine companion.

They are heartbreakers. But, you mourn them and suffer the consequences of that loss and then...you get on with it. Inevitably, another one finds it's way home with you and the cycle begins again. You measure the periods of your life by their years and hopefully, you are better for it.

So sorry James for your loss.

Beautiful and thoughtful words from both Ted and James about something most all of us have experienced. Condolences to both of you and your families. We have a corner of our yard which is reserved for the burial of pets and canine hunting companions. It is down by the fish pond, but as James's words about where to bury a dog say so eloquently, the real burial of a dog is in the hearts of those who loved it...Geo

Thank you all. And Ted, thank you for sharing those memories of Gypsy. They are almost perfect. Like most dogs!

CB,

A nice remembrance for Scout.

Ken

James, I am so sorry to hear about Scout's impending death. I remember when she was bitten by the Massasauga Rattler and how she pulled through. Agreed that there is no better place to bury a dog than in one's heart. Best, Gil

James,
Sorry for your loss. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and reminding all of us how lucky we are to have had these companions in our lives.

Beautifully and movingly shared, sir. Thank you. Those of us who’ve loved and been loved by dogs know and care out of connected hearts.

I’m sorry she’s gone. I’m glad she’s not.

Sorry for your loss James. I have one approaching 15 myself. Saying goodbye is by far the hardest part of owning bird dogs for me. It sounds like Scout had a great life.

Beautiful dogs. I am so sorry that you lost yours. Take care.

Such a great and accurate observation. He wrote some gems. My mind has been scrolling through my calendar the last 36 hrs. Lots of highlights. A few lows but they’ve been manageable.