| There I stood dead in my tracks, beaten, each breath came as a wheezing gasp. The sucking muck of the duck marsh closed tightly around my calves as I felt myself sinking deeper. Even though it was a clear, cold day on the marsh, I could feel the cool sweat soaked headband of my camo cap and a slimy layer of sweat covering my body. I had struggled in through the ice-choked cattails for several hundred yards, breaking ice, and sinking into the oozing mud each step. Carrying my own weight was as much as I could handle, but of course I had also shouldered a couple dozen decoys, my old Browning 12 gauge pump, and a 5 gallon bucket full of everything that a crazed duck hunter could possibly need. I had set hunkered down in a stand of cattails watching in consternation as repeated volleys of mallards forged away, circled around, swept past, but never settled into my decoys. Every close pass seemed to come to my backside, but my waders were clutched so tightly by the encircling
mud that a spin move to get a wildfowl in my sights was a patent impossibility. Then, suddenly a small flock streaked by.just 20 yards out. With a frustrated groan, I jerked free, spun, locked onto the first feathered fowl that appeared off the end of my gun barrel and squeezed off a desperation shot. "Its hit!..Rats!!! A suzy!" She carried past, over an island of cattails and skidded, unseen onto a narrow strip of ice. Duchess flashed out of the blocks, leaping, breaking ice with each landing. She disappeared behind the cattails, reappeared and disappeared again. "Dang! She should have it by now." It looked like that suzy had just vanished. This was not going to be an easy retrieve. Well, if you know my duck huntin', you know that I don't normally shoot hens and I would rather pass on questionable shots than to loose even an occasional duck. So I started struggling through the ice and ooze toward Duchess. She was still working back and forth, in and out of th
e various cattails. So here I stood, gasping for breath, soaked with sweat and exasperated at the possibility of loosing that suzy and not even pitching in to help. "Here they come!" was the whispered cry of my brother-in-law huntin' buddy. I summoned a burst of energy, extricated myself, and melded with the edge of that cattail island. I was hunkered down, heaving, carefully watching the circling flock, still stinging from the possible loss of the little hen. Then a hint of sound to my side, a slight movement in my peripheral vision. I slowly rotated my eyes around. My spirit rose with surprised joy and relief. My heart filled with pride for my big beautiful black lab duck dog standing at my side, head high.the suzy dangling out of both sides of her mouth. |