Country Gal by Vanita Blundell Dec. 5, 06

By the time this article comes out we will only have a few days of rifle deer season left. I hope that you all survived it. This year it seemed that there were more out of state hunters looking for a place to hunt. I am surprised that someone would come from a long distance to hunt without any plan of where they are going to hunt or stay. It seems that some have no idea of our limited services and that most places are spoken for. All of us have family and friends who enjoy hunting and have promised our hunting to them. I have always said that hunters are the one thing that can reproduce without procreation and the gestation period can vary from just a few minutes to years and the number of offspring can be from one to twenty.
Dad had a cousin that came out during quail season and I loved it when they came as we did not get a lot of company. He and his son came out and I thought that it was nice that a father and son shared the same interest. They had bird dogs which I thought were really neat. Then in a year or two they started to bring out friends and business associates. The next thing we knew we had a bunch of guys out in our yard on opening day. Do not get me wrong we liked the cousin and all of his friends but Dad liked having his cousin come, so they could have some time together, but it got to where we did not even get to visit with him.
When they would bring in the quail and pheasant to clean, I always wanted one to see if we could save it. It bothered me that sometimes the birds were still alive. I thought that it must have been awful for the bird to be put in a bag with other dead or severely wounded birds. I know that I humanize the animal world a little too much but just think how terrifying it would be to be the quarry and be put in the vest or a bag with your fellow mates not knowing what would happen next. It always reminded me of the story that was told about my Uncle Gene Cary. He was in World War I and had gotten gassed. The military had put him in the morgue as they thought he was dead and when he came to he saw two dead guys next to him. Right then and there he decided to go back to his beloved home state of Virginia and he did. Because of the gas he always had breathing problems from then on. But he was lucky to be alive. So I always thought that when you shoot a bird go ahead and kill the poor thing so he will not suffer anymore. However, I am glad that they did not knock poor ole’ Uncle Gene in the head before they put him in the morgue, so I guess it is your call.