Candid Cameron
Just the other day I was riding down the road – Mike drives and chauffeurs me about, as it should be – and then I saw it. Another dog on a leash being led along the highway by a hooman. I instantly let out a few loud barks — never mind Mike’s ear was about 2-inches away from my mouth. Luckily for him he did not have his hearing aids in, har har! Plus he did not swerve off the highway and wreck or I could have been hurt!
I’m here to tell you I enjoy barking at kids, cats, llamas, other dogs, birds, pigs and sometimes horses. All of those animals are standing about with nothing happening and they deserve notice that my chariot is passing. In the old Roman days I understand folks on the street had to bow or kneel when the emperor passed. I’ll not be so smug to expect this treatment — I just want those beside the road to look at me as I pass. So I bark. Loudly!
I like unexpected, instantaneous barking the best. Never mind the windows are rolled up. Never mind I saw something and Mike did not — he didn’t notice the llama, for example, had grass hanging from its lips and barking helps aid grass digestion. That’s my theory, thus I bark.
I also like standing by the front door or staring out the back windows and growling and barking. Maybe I saw something. Invaders? When I recently jumped off the bed at 2A.M. and ran to the front door to bark and growl, Mike took a long while to get up and start moving. He needs training — he’s slow. When he opened the door and found nothing out there but the howling cold winter wind, he was unhappy. I heard something, I swear. Maybe Mike needs to sleep on the floor by the front door to be quicker in response to my early morning alarm barks.
He also did not go back to sleep after that episode. I found his tossing and turning the rest of that early morning until sunrise to be annoying.
I bark because I can. That’s why I bark. Whatever. —Cameron
Archibald Rutledge has long been recognized as one of the finest sporting scribes this country has ever produced.
This collection, first published in 1998, turns to Rutledge’s writings on two subjects near and dear to his heart that he understood with an intimacy growing out of a lifetime of experience—upland bird hunting and hunting dogs. Its contents range from delightful tales of quail and grouse hunts to pieces on special dogs and some of their traits. Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways also includes a long fictional piece, “The Odyssey of Bolio,” which shows that Rutledge’s literary mastery extended beyond simple tales for outdoorsmen. Buy Now
