Evening star., 1901-06-08
A WONDERFUL BIRD DOG

Talking about bird dogs" said the man
with the shifty eye, in the rear seat OF the
trolley car-and nobody had said word
about bird dogs or any other kind Of dogs
II had the most remarkable bird dog that
ever happened, I guess, when I was living
out in Santa Barbara. Cal. in '95. I don't
s'pose there ever will be the likes of that
dog on this earth again. / raised him from
pup. He was pointer from away back.
1t was just as natural for that dog to flop
on to his launches and point at bird as
it is for US humans to eat things that don t
agree with u.s.
He began to point before he had shed
his milk teeth I took him out for a walk
one day when he was only about two
months old, and it took US about four hours
to get over two miles of ground, for that
dog would sit down and point at bird
about every ten feet of our progress 1t
didn't make any sort of difference what
kind of a bird it was that he pointed at.
He'd point at any old kind of a bird. If a
little bunch of English sparrows would set
tie down in the middle of the street he d
just sit down and point at them. and it
was all l could do to get him to come
along with me. He'd point al robin sit
ting on top of cottonwood tree, and he'd
point at a Brahmin rooster clawing up a
flower bed in front yard. Any old thing
that had feathers on it that dog of mine
would point at Had him out one after
noon when a bal1-headed eagle began to
soar around above Santa Barbara, about
three miles up in the air, and blamed If
that dog didn't catch sight of the noble
bird and squat down and point at 1t until
l had to bat him with club to induce him
to come along with me.
One day l had an aching tooth, and I
decided to go to a dentist and have the
miserable molar yanked out / felt so bad
that l took that pointer pup along with
me for company on my way to the dentists
nrod hN,, ho la
ped into the office with me. Next thing
knew that pointer pup of mine was sitting
pack on MS quarters, appointing at pic
ture OF some ruffied grouse that the dentist
mad on the wall of his reception room.
In the course of time pointing got to be
regular mania of that dogs, and
couldn't take him out for exercise very
often on account of his habit of tagging
behind and point at feathered things. Took
him out one afternoon when he was about
year old. and furniture van with lot
of pillows piled on top of some beds came
along. One of the pillows was broken at
That dog of mine saw the flying feathers,
and blame me if he didn't sit down and
point at that furniture van. Fact
But that wasn't the cuteSt thing he ever
did. The cuteSt thing he ever did was one
afternoon when l took him down to the
Santa Barbara beach for walk on the
sand l hadn't any sooner got him down
to the beach than he sat down and began
~ punt out 10 sea Coulun IOr the lie
of me make out what he was pointing at.
There wasn't ary bird, not even a seagull
in sight. But he kept right on squatting
there at the verge of the sea and pointing
out over the water. and if ever a man was
puzzled, then / was. At first I calculated
that he might be mistaking the crests of
the waves for feathers, but no. little re-
Election convinced me that he wasn't any
such a fool dog as to do thing like that.
Then / noticed that he was pointing direct
ly at white ship that lay out in the har-
Dor. l pulled out my field glasses and
took a look at the ship, and then the mys-
terry was made clear. The ship he was
pointing at was the United States man-o-
war Petrel,' and then the man with the
shifty eye executed a sudden leap and es-
capped from the car before his wrathful
listeners could hop on him and macerate
him.