While Maud was driving homeward today I was invited to a duck shoot. When I came to the shoot I called Maud and she said she had about one more hour to drive home. I told her to stop at some shop and buy some cream because we would have duck for dinner tonight.

 

We were 6 guns and 5 labradors. 3 from one of Swedens top kennels and 2 imports from Ireland. They put me in a hot spot and I had a lot of shooting. To start with I missed a lot, maybe 10 birds. For a moment I did not understand why, but then I understood that I was trying to shoot the much faster sea fowl like eider duck, yellow eye and scooter on open sea. I had fallen back to old habbits.  When I adjusted my shooting to the actual conditiones, a small lake, or "pond "could be a better description,  deep in the forest and the relatively slow ducks coming in for landing, I finally started to hit them and had a lot of fun the rest of the evening. It was also a delight to see all the good dogwork, all of them had some kind of merits from field trials. The distance to the Baltic sea is maybe 5 kilometers and thats were the ducks come from in the evening to spend the night in the pond. They will keep on coming until it is too dark to shoot. The problem with such shallow ponds is that they will freeze rather rapidly if some cold weather is present and thats the end of the fun for the season. In addition it is not wise to shoot there too often, otherwise the ducks will learn that it is a restless and dangerous place. Twice a month might be OK, not more often than that.

 

So we made duck for dinner, with a lot of cream in the sauce. Not a bad combination, I dare to say!

 

 I also noticed that I got a damn deep yearning for an own dog, a springer spaniel of course. I saw a few days ago that there was a litter for sale in a shooting magazine. What makes me sick is that it was from "parents with a lot of Championship winners and FTCH's in the pedigree". I know precisely what that means; small, ugly, very soft, shortlegged and smoldering hot springers that are tailored to win field trials and championships.

 

I could have a very good looking yellow working lab any day I bothered to pick the phone. However I know that they are not more fun than the setters we already have. They are fun, yes, but I'd like to complement our collection of dogs with something that most of the time will be really crazy, and as good looking as the setters, like a good looking springer with a lot of guts! I really need one, as a medicine )) It would have added a lot of fun to todays shooting to let such a spaniel race against the labs! My medicines are tax-deductible. I wonder if I could fool my doctor to describe a working spaniel for me as an indispensable medicine???

 

Torsti

Borta Med Vindens Kennel
"Ask not what your dog can do for you.
Ask what you can do for your dog."
www.rospigan.net