Hunting Dogs - Dogs Breeds

Many readers have sent wonderful and heart-touching letters and e-mails over the years after I have had to put a dog down. More recently my last Labrador, Bo, passed away in December.

Dogs, and their stories, many of them sad and tear-jerking, strike a common bond with  people from otherwise different walks of life.

I have written about my Labs and their escapades — both good and bad — over the past two decades. Stories about losing a companion bring me more reader response than anything.

You never completely get over the loss of a dog that you have raised and spent years together hunting and enjoying the outdoors.

I’ve been able to get on after losing Bo, but she is never far from my thoughts. I didn’t know if I would get another dog — I didn’t want to feel the pain and sorrow of losing another and, recently, I’ve had my own health issues.

But some great friends — and some people I don’t even know — got together and decided I needed another Labrador in my life. I guess the emptiness and sorrow showed, even though I thought I had buried it.

Turns out Bob Zownir and Wally Banfi put together a “Get Gary A Puppy Fund” and found enough people to donate the money to buy me a just-born Labrador. They, together with Jim Kelter, who found a couple of great breeders in Jane Esser and Billy Brewer outside Bangor, Wis. Jane and Bill are not full-time breeders and don’t run a “puppy mill.” They will only have one litter from their female Labradors before having them spayed.

Kelter found out about the litter from Suzie Schwartz of Prairie du Sac, who just happened to have gotten her male Labrador, Chance, from Jane and Bill.

On Sunday, Suzie drove Wally and me to Norwegian Coulee outside of Bangor, where Esser and Brewer have a beautiful organic farm nestled in the hills and valleys of the southwestern part of the state.

A couple of weeks ago, their female Lab, Kniper, had a litter of 12 yellow and chocolate puppies. You can imagine what 12 little balls of fur look like. The puppies had just been fed when we arrived Sunday, so they were “busy” taking a nap after their lunch.

I picked out a yellow female puppy that in about a month will move to my home on the edge of the Wisconsin River in Mazomanie.

This two-week-old yellow Labrador will have a great life and fill the void in mine. I’m sure Bo would approve of my new companion. I haven’t yet named the new girl, but I’m open to suggestions.

Source: Madison.com

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