Mulak Reader - Mike’s Dog

This one appeared in the initial issue of Gun Dog, and I reprinted it in Brown Feathers. It’s the shortest of short stories—a joke, actually—that I first heard from my friend Mike Sharik years ago. This story still tickles me.

Mike’s Dog

          While straightening out a few things in my corner of the cellar I happened to bump the peg where the dogs' hunting collars were hung. The attached bells tinkled softly, and although it was 10 p.m. on the snowiest night of February, both dogs were instantly at my feet, dancing with expectation. Pavlov first documented it, but anyone who has ever owned a hunting dog knows the association dogs quickly make with anything connected to "going out": Pull on your boots before venturing out to shovel the driveway, or check over your shotgun in preparation for a trip to the skeet range, and the dogs are there, trembling with excitement and asking unspoken questions with their eyes. The association isn't limited to inanimate things, either: Let your hunting partner show up for a night of poker and beer and even a sleeping dog is quickly in second gear at the sound of his voice.

          My friend Mike tells of a dog he once had as a boy in Pennsylvania. "He was just a mongrel, but damned if he wasn't the smartest dog I've ever known. I'd get down my little Fox twenty side-by and he'd know right away what we were doin' - He'd head straight for the alders and start huntin' birds. And if I'd get out my father's 12 gauge automatic, he'd watch the sky for ducks. When he saw me carryin' the .22, he'd hunt nothin' but rabbits and squirrels, and he knew the .30-30 meant he should run deer. He was smart. Why, one day I got out my fishin' rod and when I looked for that dog he was out in the yard, diggin' worms."

          Mike was good.  He never cracked a smile until after the last line.

Home | Naming of Sawbuck Point | The Warning | The Corvis Addiction | Winter Dreams | The Cipher | Fisticuffs | The Compliment | Stop It | First Snow | Housman’s Dog | Wax and Wane | Winter | Wisdom | Branta Canadensis Northeaster | The End | The Fella in the Red Hat | Showers Heavy at Times | Meat Dog | Of Ringers and Leaners | Rudi-ka-Zudi | Mikes Dog | Adversaries | And Fishing Too | Bluebills on the East Wind | Brown Feathers from my Game Vest | Cycles | Daddy's Girl | Drumming Logs | Epilogue | For a Good Bird Dog Dying Young | High Tide in a Peasoup Fog | Good News Bad News and the Sportsmans Quiz | Just a Bit Longer | Just Mallards | Knuckleball | Motherhood (Sort Of) | Notes on Opening Day | Pretzel Logic | Secrets of Successful Bootwearing | September's Song | Stone Fences | Suzie | The Cutting Edge | The Latest New Spot | The Mousecatcher | The Poacher | The Sportsman's Lexicon of Sniglets | The Streak | The Tarnished RXP | The Thaw | Thunderbird | To Fetch a Bird | Wellfleet | Why?

This site was last updated 09/21/06