Birthdays Flush out Fond Memories

Ace turned 13 today.

There were times over the last six months I didn’t think he would make it.

Not that there was anything specifically wrong with him, he’s just old -- for a hunting dog anyway.

And he is that. Ace has been hunting since he was seven months. On Jan. 1 he completed his 12th season.

Never the best dog in the pack, he blended in over the years hunting behind more aggressive, more talented dogs. Now it’s just him and Dot, a three-year-old who far surpasses him in the field.

Hunting prowess aside, however, Ace has always been there. While I was struggling to keep track of all the other dogs, Ace was never more than a few steps away from me.

He has a good nose. Whenever we happen to cross a hot track, he’s all over it, but he is never out there looking.

He also doesn’t retrieve, and rarely swims.

But enough about what he doesn’t do. He does bark, which earned him the nickname Barker Heinlein. He cries often enough that we refer to him as Mr. Baby, and he tops it off with a picky appetite.

He’s also the only dog over which I’ve tripled on roosters. Hunting cover that no longer exists, Ace flushed three birds and I dropped them all, two falling close by while the third sailed out of sight. Picking up the first two pheasants I noticed Ace was gone. He’d followed the flight of the third rooster and when I found him he had it pinned to the ground in a stand of cattails.

“Good boy,” was hardly enough praise.

Never the most athletic spaniel, he’s now at an age where I have to lift him in and out of the truck.

Stone deaf from a dozen years of shots fired over his head, Ace reacts to hand signals if he happens to be watching. If not, I have to get his attention, wildly waving my arms as I run into his field of view.

Remarkably fit for his age, Ace still maintains one habit that has always annoyed me. If I stop to take a break while we’re hunting, he’ll bark incessantly until I start moving again.

So that’s how we hunt, moving constantly, taking no breaks. He won’t tolerate it.

I didn’t think Ace would make it to the end of the season.

He did.

And today he turned 13.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]