Updates and Announcements

I've been receiving emails, Facebook messages and blog comments inquiring about my obvious absence from the blogosphere.  This is the longest stretch I've ever gone without blogging since I began over 4 years ago. After some serious reflection these last few weeks I realize a lot of it has to do with no longer having Cleo and Luna in my life. At times this blog has felt like a painful reminder of them and an aching reminder of the void losing them has created for me. It's been difficult to write having lost my muses and the inspirations brought on by their little spotted troublesome selves. It's been something I have had to work through these last few months. I feel I've evolved and grown from it rather than letting it entomb me and the good news is I feel my inspiration returning with a vengeance I and have been thinking about this blog in a very longingly way. 

First Some Updates

Since moving to Montana Sage and I have flourished. There is not a moment that goes by where I'm not completely happy and fulfilled being here. Sage like me loves the big open spaces and all it has to offer including very little traffic. We have even gotten used to its quirky weather isms that spur reports saying things like 70 degrees and sun with a 100% chance of snow. In fact I found myself smack in the middle of a blizzard this week rocking my favorite pair of flip flops.  Such is life in Big Sky country.

Burning off the Spring time crazies up in Hyalite 

Our 2014-2015 hunting season came and went. We didn't get out quite as much as we had hoped too but we did have some fantastic adventures together. Next season will be much easier to navigate since we will have been here a year and will have had time to make connections and figure out the BMA system. I did go back and finish editing a post I wrote but never published on our first successful hunt last fall. It was a pretty memorable day. You can read about it here: These Mountain Grouse don't Stand a Chance

1500 Acre area we were training in Three Forks

Coming full circle training season has once again arrived. We packed up and made the quick trip down to Three Forks a couple of weekends ago to attend the first official Montana Sharptail NAVHDA training day of the year. I was stoked to get Sage out on some birds but the day was made extra special by spending time with my good friends Keith and Kerry Lucas. Keith, Kerry and I were members of the Del Val NAVHDA chapter in NJ and we have been training together for the last several years. They moved to Montana shortly after I did last year. Needless to say it was comforting to be around and training with old friends. In addition the Lucas's own Grace who is Cleo and Luna's older sister. Gracie and Cleo share the same sassy and intense personality so my heart was warmed by just being near her. I hope to be heading out towards Billings in the coming weeks to train with them again.

Kerry working Gracie

Sage is doing very well and is her normal wild woman self. She's proved to be the absolute worst fly fishing dog on the planet. It took only a few times out for her to figure out the best lies for trout in the eddy so of course she stands in them scaring off any hiding giants. When you do happen to tie in a fish it becomes a frantic and spastic dance of her desperately trying to grab the fish and deliver it to hand and us trying to run away with it still on the line. Luckily she has a soft mouth when she does manage to get a hold of one but she's finding herself getting invited on fishing excursions less and less. 

Sage has developed a love of cat food that was clearly inherited from her mother Cleo. Everyday becomes a challenge of barricading it on the counter only to find she has used her GSP super powers to destroy it in our absence and stuff her face on kitty chow bounty. I often think these dogs posses some kind of black magic voodoo that is of course never used for good. Imagine if she decided to use her wizardly to vacuum the house instead of stealing chapstick after chapstick off my bedroom dresser to eat and mash into the carpet. But she is a gem of a dog and has proved to be the best traveling companion a girl could ask for.

Sage Monkey the world traveler. A Yellowstone National Park aficionado. Deep in thought contemplating eating that big juicy bison patty.  

Sage showing off in Lamar Valley just where GSP's rank with wolves, coyotes and foxy loxys.   

Sage and her favorite fly fishing and lap riding partner in crime Wyatt

A Quick Announcement (drum roll please)

Somethings have been in the works behind the scenes and it's time to make it "Internet official" and announce that our pack will be getting bigger! I sent in our deposit a couple of months ago to Sharp Shooters Kennel in Wisconsin and are on the waiting list for a female GSP puppy. I expect our new baby girl to come home sometime between the fall of 2015 and spring of 2016. I can't even explain how the thought of having two shorthairs again makes me feel. I want to bust at the seems with joy. Sage will love having a four legged companion as well. I can only imagine the bewitchment she will teach her future protege. 

So Whats Next?
We have our first big camping trip planned for Memorial Day weekend so I will be blogging about that for sure. Tomorrow we start our weekly training with the local sub-group of the NAVHDA Sharptail chapter. In addition each week will be training on our own down in Three Forks. It's time to ramp up our training for the UT test so I will be updating you guys on our progress. Also I have been re-editing some old posts I started but never quite finished and will be polishing them for publishing. I'm excited about this blog again and am ready to start putting out content. 

Be sure to check us out and follow us on Facebook at: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer. 

Sage Bears All

Things have been great for Sage Monkey and I since our last post. We've been out hunting since opening day but more importantly we have been soaking up our new life in Big Sky country. On a personal level part of that for me has been being able to get out and consume as much nature as possible. On Saturday I decided to go hike Sacagawea Peak (Sageless and by myself). It's the highest peak in the Bridger range and offers stellar summit views in every direction. I was blessed enough to run into some mountain goats while at the top and have included some photos below.  It was an awesome day indeed.

Before heading out to hike Sacagawea I swung by Sportman's Warehouse in Bozeman and grabbed a can of bear spray. It is grizzly country after all and it would be irresponsible for me to not at least have some with me. Truth time folks. Let's have an honest talk about bear spray.

#1. It's basically hopped up super mace and is designed to deter aggressive bears.  
#2. The minimum recommended distance to discharge the spray between you and the bear is about 25 feet
#3. Bear spray is pressurized and contains some seriously hazardous contents
#4. It's really nasty shit.....did I mention that yet? It needs to stop a pissed off grizzly. In case you didn't know male grizzlies can weigh 790lbs.

Let's now flash forward past my non-bear encounter hike up to Sacagawea to my Sunday night. I had a wonderful dinner at my best friend Jen's house. I played with her kids (my nephews Noah and Alex), chilled at the park afterwards with them and then read 5 year old Noah his bed time story, proudly getting to be his ambassador to sleepy land. Then I had a glass of wine, said my good nights and headed home to my beloved Sage Monkey.

Then shit got real. I walked in the door to my tiny 700 sq ft apartment and Sage was overly riled. By the time I got 8 feet into the hallway I felt as though I had been hit by a freight train. I couldn't breathe, my eyes and skin were burning and the only thing running through my mind was that there was a fire or some kind of toxic fumes were invading my apartment. Little did I know what was truly in store for future Robyn. Feel free to start pitying her now....but I digress. I ran to the back patio turned around and saw that Sage in my absence had managed to remove my newly purchased can of bear spray from the kitchen counter and had bit into it spewing its contents down my wall, base boards and heater and soaked fully into my carpet.

At this point I was basically dry heaving and snot was involuntarily pouring from my face. I drug her outside and opened all my windows and doors. I carefully removed the punctured can being wary not to touch it and then I called my girlfriend Jen for reinforcements. She had at her house everything a girl could need to combat a super noxious capsicum spray debacle: milk, heavy cream and Ponds cold cream.  

Jen showed up to my shit show and offered two very important things: help and humor. I had already tossed Sage in the shower although she would require a milk bath. Jen quickly pointed out that I hadn't removed her collar and the bear spray could easily be hanging on to it. (I'd like to throw it out there that Sage wasn't even remotely fazed by any of the commotion or painful spray. This could easily be a sypmtom of her being a batshit crazy GSP). When I unhooked her collar bear spray laced water flung directly into my eyes and onto my face. This is where I politely say Fuck You bear spray. It was just about the most painful and debilitating experience. I'd like to add that while I writhed in pain and agony on my carpet and Jen threw me a milk soaked towel I choked and half laughed/cried, "you better get a god damn picture of this." And such is the sadness you see below.

Pretty much the worst moment of my life and I can't stop crying/laughing or 

demanding it to be photographed.

This was pretty awful. If you ever wondered what heavy cream and tears looked like. 

True friends show up to your house when your jerk dog blows bear spray through your apartment, they pull your hair back while you cry into heavy cream in your kitchen sink and they most importantly take unwarranted selfies of you at your complete worst because that shit is funny. In fact it's just about the only thing I respect. They also wash your dog with milk and soap and then have a beer with you before heading home and telling you how much fun you make their life.

Your mocking my life right now. But your washing my dog. 

Pretty sure I may never see the same way again but Ponds is in the 

midst of free publicity. I can only see pain. 

Ignore my ugly suffering mug and pay tribute to how awesome my T shirt is. It says, "Philly, No one likes us and we don't care." Truer words have never been spoken. Fly Eagles Fly. #Reppingphilly

I wish I could offer some moral of the story but it's a couple of hours later and my lips are still on fire, my lungs feel singed and I am still sporting a ponds cold cream hitler stash. All I can say is Sage Monkey may have finally out done her Aunt Luna...AKA Hell puppy with this one. Sage has earned herself back into the the crate 3 to 4 hours a day pending good behavior. Jen and I have another insane story to throw into our almost 27 year history together. Sage is okay which is all I really care about. And if there was ever any doubt in my mind......I don't ever want to be maced or run into a grizzly.

Follow our shenanigans on facebook at: Adventures of a German Shorthaired Pointer