"She waddles and snorts like a pig
in sh*t," Larry, her mother's owner once said, while we
watched and listened as the ten year old Labrador, mostly hidden
under dense cattails thick as cat hairs, followed a pheasant
track through a half mile long slough last December. Every few
minutes, the black dog would hesitate, bringing a short stop
and a sudden quiet that usually meant that she was taking a breather,
or was deciding which new route a bird trail had taken, or was
getting ready to pounce on a pheasant.
If the pause was for a pheasant, a shotgunner needed to ready.
On opening day, there was a 50-50 chance the bird would be a
rooster, flying straight up and frantic to escape dog paws and
jaws. Now, later in the season, there would be mostly hens, but
one out of ten would be a long-tailed cock, often with a few
feathers missing from miscalculating the proximity and speed
of the old Labrador. |
"Babe" was her name and pheasants were her
game, but no one would ever guess this given her birth and upbringing.
The runt of her litter, she was, from the beginning, ugly and
sort of outcast. "I heard a saying once," Larry said,
"that there are no 'ugly' brides, babies, or puppies.I won't
comment on women and children, but I will
|
say that Babe from the beginning was ugly
- ugly to the bone. With beady, out-cocked eyes, a definite over-bite,
and short, bowed legs, she looked so bad that if the kids hadn't
been there whining about the 'poor puppy,' she would have ended
up at the bottom of a water bucket."
At seven weeks, she went to Larry's brother-in-law's farm where
she grew up to be even uglier. Short-legged and barrel-bodied
"she had a 'snippy' nose so needle sharp she could have
sucked the last inch of cola from the bottom of a Coke bottle,"
Larry used to say. And, as the owner of Babe's mother, he often
added that this farm dog was not much of a credit to her race
- in looks at least.
On the farm she was head yard-dog in charge of the discipline
program for a German Shepherd and a Blue Heeler, both younger
dogs kept in line and second to the food dish |
