I remember after a spring weekend, before Julie had come up for the summer, somebody asked what I did on my days off?
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| fishing the Laramie river in Wyoming |
That's easy, I went fishing of course. Where?
in the water. did you go alone? no, with Maggie. Who is Maggie?
She is my friend. Oh, she's your dog! Shhh. she'll hear you. and yes, Maggie is our
dog. you have probably seen her in most
of these posts (black dog, white paw, usually has a stick nearby), next to
maybe beer we take more pictures of her than anything.
Sticks are Maggies' bag!
While I will admit, I do enjoy answering questions in a way that tends to confuse some people (I think it comes from my years of serving drinks to Canadian golfers), I truly don't feel as if I am fishing alone when I'm with Maggie, AKA the Pooper.
We have had so many adventures together I could fill up a
good deal more than space than I have here. One of my favorites was: while
fishing the South Fork of the Flathead, I was wading in the middle of the
river, and all of a sudden I hear a big commotion coming up behind me. I turn
around and see a big ole moose heading my way, with Maggie in hot pursuit. The
moose sees me and decides he would be better off on the other side, so he turns
90 degrees and starts across the river, thinking he could shake her from his
heels. Not so fast, Maggie without missing a step launches into the river in
hot pursuit, and would have kept going except I yelled and told her "leave
that darn moose alone". Only Maggie
knows what she would have done with him when she caught him.
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| Maggie directs the way down the South Fork of the Flathead |
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| Our faithful hound unflinchingly guards our dearest possession.......... The Beer! |
When
Maggie was new to the fishing game, we went on a road trip to go fish the Upper
Sacramento River, In California. I remember when I showed up my friend Ben eyed
Maggie, and said, "there's two kind of fishing dogs, what
kind are you?"
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| Happy as a clam in "her" seat |
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| romping on the North Platte....... look out for the steaming bear poop! |
Over the years she has proven over and over she's the good
kind of fishing dog. Give her a seat of
her own in the raft and she will be content all day. From swimming through the whitewater on the
Blackfoot, to cowering during a biblical sized thunderstorm on the Big Hole she
has definitely proven over and over on
the rivers of Montana (and just about any other western state you can name)
that she is the GOOD kind of fishin dawg.
From the forests........
to the mountains............
to the great deserts...................
and from sea to shining sea........
There may never be a finer fishing dog than the Pooper!
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| I always have bear hugs for the pooper. |
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| "Friends for life" Camping with Maggie and Annie |
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| "fishing" on the Thompson |
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| where's Maggie? |
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| The end |
