Nick Nuechterlein
a week ago
We were dog-sitting Soph, the dog-daughter of a friend of a friend of my parents. Soph eats sand and jumps on people and is very sweet when she is tired. We were also house-sitting for my grandma. A win-win, actually, because we could call the weekend a baby moon. At grandma's house, I found a bright orange cap, something to wear during hunting season so you don't get shot, or so the thinking goes. See, I am afraid of these things -- like fire/tornado/shooter drills -- because it seems like those things and those times are the things and times that make human hunting easier. That's all to say, I figured April was a fine time to don that orange hunting cap.
And there I sat, with puppy Soph, wearing that safety hat, waiting for my strawberry shake. Then a gentle-seeming older man came by and took a look at Soph (a Springer) and the hunting cap on my head and asked me just about what you'd expect: "You a hunter?"
And I blew it. Just blew it. Mumbled something. Sort of recovered. Said she was a hunter. Birds. And he smiled and walked off.
I was devastated, because the thing is that my grandpa (RIP) was a hunter, and for him being a hunter had something to do with being a man, and a man is what he wanted to make me. So I do know a bit about hunting birds. I know words like chukars, quails, and pheasants. I know some dogs are good for pointing, some for flushing, some for fetching. I know I don't like guns and killing, but people do both of them and it can be complicated, because some people who love animals also love killing them and somehow that is a form of respect.
If I could do it again, I would be someone who I am not. I would have told him Soph's a great hunter, that I run her and work her as much as work allows. That she's not gun shy and--I'd laugh and shake my head here--that she's really only interested in flushing but I'm still working on pointing. And I'd say that she's a good girl, and he would know what that meant, and that smile he walked off would have been a different kind of smile. The kind of smile that reflects the realization that there still are young people that are the person he was when he was their age. And that the world goes on.
