Porkie's minus one

I have a vague recollection of a series of movies based around a roadhouse called "Porkie's". When you run bird dogs you will eventually have to deal with another type of Porkies -- the ones with the quills. Tony, Frankie (the dog), and I had an encounter with one on March 26th (see the post from that date for details) and had to rename a cover the porcupine cover. today, Tony and an un-named associate were returning from the Porcupine Cover when they encountered the beast or one of his relatives crossing the road. Said associate dispatched the beast which is legal here in NH but not necessarily the case in all jurisdictions. When I find them around the house I reach for the .204 if I don't have a shotgun in hand at the time. I have found a load of 7 1/2s more than adequate for the task with either my 20 or my 28. I even shot one once with my English hammer gun which is a 2 1/2 inch 12gauge. The first time I was able to go to Michigan for the Grand National was 1998. I think I spent more hours on that trip pulling quills than I did running dogs. The worst case was one of Bob Stewart's dogs who caught, killed, and tried to swallow a relatively small porkie. The most disappointing porkie encounter had to have been Elhew Hustler running the Grand that year. She made a number of good moves and then came back from what seemed like a really nice cast covered in quills. She was a devoted porkie hunter. I had a vet tell me once when I had a mutt the was covered with quills that dogs go one of two ways. After their first encounter the learn their lesson and avoid porkies or the spend the rest of their lives trying to get even. I have been fortunate that so far the dogs I have had have fallen into the later category. Let's hope Frankie does too.

In addition to the dead porkie, the boys saw three turkeys way the heck out in the woods. moved 6 to 8 grouse (how hard can it be to count accurately to eight), and had a woodcock pointed that had her full complement of four eggs in her nest. (Supposedly they got a picture of the eggs and have promised to e-mail to me -- but it hasn't arrived yet. Don't hold your breath as I'm still waiting for some pictures of Jack on point that were promised from a week ago.) With four eggs in the nest, we can expect chicks in 20-22 days which would put their due date in the first week of May, unless she's been sitting on them for awhile.

I only ran one dog today as much of my time was taken up with going to the hospital for a cystoscopy to see if I'm a candidate for a green laser treatment for my BPH. If you don't know what any of that means it's because your not old enough -- after 60 it's all about maintenance.

The ten day forecast is looking great with above average temperature early in the period going back to seasonable by the end. Not a lot of moisture either. Any of you who hunt grouse and woodcock in the Northeast should be praying that the trend continues.