Blog

A Transition

December 28, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
When Ben Reach got the call from Randy Marsh he immediately suspected what Randy would ask his advice on. There were two clues. One was Randy’s tone of voice. The other was the general state of field trials, what with Covid and drought in the west — North and South Dakota and Montana especially, circumstances leading to trial cancellations and low entries. Read more

The Last Hour Dog

December 25, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam were alone in Ben’s library-conference room on a cold and cloudy year-end Friday afternoon. The week had been brutal for both curmudgeons. Sam had had to tell a favorite patient her cancer had returned. Ben had had to tell a grandfather his favorite grandson had flunked out of prep school. Read more

Deceit

| Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
It was the week before Christmas. Ben and Sam at four in the afternoon were alone in Ben’s library-conference room with a new-old fifth bottle of The Macallan 16 (joint Christmas gift to them from a client-patient), ice and club soda. They were using neither ice nor soda, both preferring the premium stuff neat in their Georgia or Harvard embossed insulated plastic short glasses. Read more

A Magic Day

December 24, 2021 | Jim Heckert, Remembrances | Comments
December 22, 2021 was a magic day for me. Why merits telling you a story. I am now eighty-three years young, and no longer shoot, for reasons of safety (mine and my companions). Until recent years quail and grouse hunting were my fall and winter therapy for the cares of life. Bird dogs and watching them do their thing still are. Read more

Trial Dog v Gun Dog

December 20, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben and Sam were gathered in Ben’s library-conference room Friday afternoon to celebrate survival of a brutal week of emergencies, Ben’s legal, Sam’s medical. Law and medicine were the last thing they wanted to talk or hear about; they were weary. In silence, Ben poured each a dram of The Macallan. Read more

A Fortunate Find

December 7, 2021 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach and Sam Nixon MD were saddened when they learned on entering Millie’s Diner for breakfast that Frank Phillips had died of a heart attack the previous afternoon while shooting a covey rise on his Red Hills Ridge Plantation. Saddened, but not morosely so, for they had often discussed how sudden death while enjoying one’s favorite sport was not a bad (indeed was an ideal) way to “shuffle off this mortal coil,” to paraphrase the Bard in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy.  Read more

When

November 29, 2021 | Poetry | Comments
When the harvest moon’s been full And the dawn is coming chill And the woodcock whistle through My thoughts turn to bird dogs and what they do Read more

Remembering the Quail Championship Invitational (1996 through 2006)

November 25, 2021 | Quail Championship Invitational, Remembrances | Comments
Reading John Russell’s splendid new book, The Invitational Champions, has brought back precious memories of the eleven years it was my privilege to report the trial at Paducah. My invitation to report came from John after my first report of the Florida Championship in 1995. I had attended the trial at Paducah as a spectator briefly in 1993 when Silver Bullett won his second crown, no Runner-Up. Read more