WAY OUT HUNTS
During July and August I made my usual pilgrimage to my Alaska Homestead. My main objective was to catch a few silver salmon for winter consumption. While in the North Country I entered my young Chui in some local Master Hunter events and managed to pick up 2 more ribbons. Nancy Sydnam one of the judges in a Master event related a story about a Chesapeake used for most unusual retrieves. During a trip to a remote western Alaska native village, she became friends of a family of subsistence hunters. The family included a big male Chesapeake. Hunters were using the dog to retrieve seals from the surf. This saved the hunters the effort of launching a boat to retrieve their seals. I know by personal experience that if a seal is properly head shot with a high power rifle it will float for several minutes. Many years ago I sometimes hunted seals in southeast Alaska. My Labs usually accompanied me on these hunts. I made my retrieves by boat. It never occurred me to use my big Labs to accomplish the save.
Back in Idaho one September morning I was awakened by incessant barking during the pitch black darkness of a 4 AM morning. The baying seemed to be in the yard of my rural home. My Chesapeakes nosily objected to the intrusion dashing to the front door wishing to join in the action. Dogs shut in I staggered out flashlight in hand to find an unreal scene. A pickup was parked on gravel road headlights on. Four local young men were milling around flashlights in hand. A couple of shotguns were displayed. Just across the road Mason a neighbor’s German shorthair was raising Hades. The hunters apologized for the rude awakening but they were on a mission. They were skunk hunting. It seems that inspired by ample quantities of bubble-t-pop they had taken up the sport with enthusiasm. They had bagged a number of skunks during early AM summer hunts. A shotgun boomed. Mason rushed in to worry the now deceased skunk. The perfume of skunk pervaded. The tough shorthair had developed a tolerance for skunk perfume. I resupplied the enthusiast hunters with some liquid refreshment. Mason in the lead the hunters headed their pickup up a cattle trail in search of more sport.