Short Stories

A Pup From Kentucky, Part I

June 1, 2026 | Booty Blevins, Short Stories | Comments

There is a long tradition of father-son apprenticeship in the pointing dog trainer-handler trade. Jake and Bobby were part of that tradition. Jake had been a for-the-public trainer-handler four decades, taught his son Bobby who scouted for him. Jake had turned his string and owners over to Bobby five years ago. Now Jake, age seventy, assisted Bobby with puppies and derbies, gave advice occasionally, sometimes welcomed, more often not. Read more

A Good Deed Rewarded

May 19, 2026 | Short Stories | Comments

At the end of this day, number five, sixty pointers would have each hunted an hour in braces. Before the last brace was released, the judges announced that two of the dogs that had gone down earlier in the week should be ready to go down together at the end of this last scheduled brace in a call-back, its length to be, “Until ordered up.” Read more

A Hiring Choice

April 20, 2026 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben Reach was often asked for advice by quail plantation owners on hiring decisions. It was not for legal advice but people advice, or in modern parlance, Human Resources advice. Ben was known as a sound judge of human beings, of character and management skill, particularly in the quail plantation realm. For a person to manage traditional quail hunts, horseback and mule-wagon type, the first consideration was safety. This required skill and judgment and what Ben and Sam called First Responder attitude. A person who never lets anything distract them from safety. Character was an equally important trait. Lack of it had ended the careers of many, in plantation management as in all jobs in requiring honesty, and that was all jobs. It was March. Fly fishing for panfish was much on the curmudgeons’ minds. Ron Silver, owner of Noyankees Plantation, had asked for a meeting with Ben (his lawyer for Georgia-centric problems) and Sam (his personal physician while in Georgia). In summer Ron lived in Massachusetts where he had made and still invested his considerable fortune. He had in Boston other lawyers and physicians. Read more

A Rivalry

February 16, 2026 | Short Stories | Comments

T’was in a time when men (and sometimes women) from small towns in our region were often competitors, and rivals, in whatever engaged them, be it commerce or profession or sport, or all the above. In the town concerned in this yarn, an adjoining place was a military base, a large training area called “Fort X” or “Camp X” depending on the decade, but the same Defense-Department-owned ground, named for the same long-dead Confederate Commander, the “X”. Read more

Another Pete-Bob Scheme

February 13, 2026 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

“Pete-Bob wants to see you,” Joanne greeted Ben as he arrived at his office Friday morning after breakfast at Millie’s Diner with Sam Nixon MD. “What about?” Ben asked, skepticism in his voice. “Says he has a special opportunity, just wants to be sure it is legal,” Joanne said. Read more

The Third Judge

January 27, 2026 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Ben Reach no longer judged field trials, too old. But he had judged many, across the continent. His favorite was often punishing, due to its weather: The Quail Championship Invitational, run at Paducah, Kentucky, starting every Saturday after Thanksgiving. The trial ran just three days, and for only twelve dogs, the top twelve who accepted the challenge based on their all-age Purina Points. The dogs ran an hour Saturday, then another hour Sunday with a different brace-mate and at the opposite time of day. Then for Monday the judges called back as many as they wanted to see in a two-hour heat, usually four or two dogs. Read more

A Fair Deal

January 17, 2026 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Albany, Georgia, lawyer Ben Reach met with Randy Culp on a Monday morning. Randy was a quail hunt manager and general hand on Sunny Slope Plantation near Thomasville. “What can I do for you, Randy?” Ben asked. “It’s about Mom, Mr. Ben. She has cancer, not expected to live long. She asked me to see you about a will for her.” Read more

A Christmas Story

December 24, 2025 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments

Pete-Bob Dix called Ben Reach and Joanne answered. “Miss Joanne, I need to see Mr. Ben and Doc Nixon urgent. I got a problem only they can fix, maybe, I hope.” It was a week before Christmas, coming next Thursday. “What’s it about, Mr. Dix?” Read more

Two Scouts

December 13, 2025 | Short Stories | Comments

This year there were only two in attendance at the Championship, held in North Florida the second week of January. Five decades earlier, when the trial was first held in 1969, each of the handlers attending had one, a year-around full-time employee. I speak of black scouts. The handlers were all white, then and now. Read more

Arnie, Bo and Superboy

November 30, 2025 | Short Stories | Comments

Arnie Eanes and Bo Brown were a handler-scout team of the 1930s, home based in Georgia. Arnie was white, Bo black. They lived at a time and place when almost no one had wealth, and the few who did were from up north and loved to bird hunt and admired good pointing dogs. Arnie and Bo made their meager income training and handling those dogs, for competitions called field trials. This was a sport invented sixty-odd years before in England and imported to the United States in 1874 and since become popular among a few sportsmen, wealthy and not, across the nation. Read more