Pets have been a part of my life since I can remember. We got our first dog when I was about a third or fourth grader.
Even before that, when I lived part of the time with my grandparents on my mother’s side, they had a dog.
Several years ago I talked about our getting our first Brittany. I was 12 years old. Her name was Banjo. Since that time, until a little more than five years ago, there’s always been at least one bird dog around.
Except for three pointers, they’ve all been Brittanys.
My wife, Pat, and I have been married 42 years and we dated a year before that. Since she’s been in my life, a bird dog has always been in hers, too, until January of 2016, when we put our last one, Sassy, down.
I’d still like to have a female Brittany if I could find one. Could probably convince Pat that would be OK, if it were a female Brittany and not a puppy.
I’ve been extremely fortunate in my life to have three excellent Brittanys, and two of those were exceptional.
Lady and Katy were what I would call exceptional, and Maggie was also excellent in her own ways.
All three were excellent hunters, and the reason I say Lady and Katy were exceptional is because of their desire to hunt. Maggie was good, too, but sometimes she just didn’t quite have the drive in the field until we started finding birds, then she got with it, too.
Lady lived to be 11 years old, Katy was 13 when she passed away and Maggie was 15 when she died.
Each had to be put to sleep. All three had cancer.
My primary hunting partner for 35 years has been Steve Buoy. We shot a lot of quail over those dogs.
My wife, prior to knowing me, had never been around bird dogs.
It’s amazing how each of those and the other dogs we’ve had, became so attached to her.
She took care of them as much if not more than I did around home.
All three of them were gentle. That’s a Brittany trait. Each was just one of the family and really good in the field.
We had our veterinarian tell us, “it’s okay to love on these dogs all you want. It won’t impact how they hunt.”
He was so right! My wife, daughter Meghan and I gave them plenty of attention.
Another trait of each of them was how far or close each one ranged during a hunt. Maggie was the one who ranged the farthest, Katy the closest and Lady in between. All minded well in the field as well.
Meg grew up with all three. Pat, Meg and I together picked out Katy and Meg and I picked out Maggie while Pat was on a business trip. I already had Lady when Pat and I met.
Meg and Pat often joined me some when I would run the dogs before the season. Pat joined me on a hunt with Katy.
She was amazed and still talks about when I shot a bird going over a hill and wasn’t 100 percent sure I had downed it.
When we came over the hill, Katy was coming back to us with that bird.
Brittanys have been part of most of my and our lives. I must admit, I miss having one.