06/19/2026
STORY TIME………
I’m making this post to introduce everyone to the newest residents of Hurricane Ridge.
A Couple of years ago I had one of the biggest compliments and honors of my career as a dog trainer. A Gentleman who has meant the world to me since I was a little boy, and has owned bird dogs longer than I have been alive called me and asked me if I could “force break” his pointer. “Bring her up” she was easy to force fetch and a polite fancy little dog. He couldn’t call me quick enough when he got home from her first trip to South Dakota. I listened for two hours to stories from one trip about the retrieves and the birds she found.
A couple months go by my phone rings and it’s Randy we had our normal conversation and jokes and catching up…and he very casually says “if anything ever happens to me I want you to have Dakota and hunt her” I very sarcastically told him “sure if anything ever happens to you I’ll take good care of her and hunt the guts out of her” he made sure I understood how serious he was and I assured him I would treat her just like one of mine…. My sarcasm wasn’t out of disrespect….. it was out of a place of the deepest respect. You see Randy was the type of man death avoided till the last minute cause he knew the beating he would take in the process. Randy was in my mind a Chuck Norris type character. Larger than life, tougher than nails. If you saw him fighting a bear you better be finding that bear some help, and quick!! Why in gods name are we talking about his demise….. Tomorrow we put one of my hero’s in the ground.
I’ve always wanted a pointer. Never saw myself as a pointer guy….. especially not some fancy French dog, and I sure didn’t plan on it happening this way, but I am blessed and honored to have been trusted with this responsibility. He only asked me for favor in my life. I pray that I can follow through the way he would have!!
AND THEN…….. there is Delilah. Our resident couch potato.
8 years ago I put two puppies on a transport and sent them to Florida one to north Florida and Delilah went to South Florida. I Never met Miss Carol but she ALWAYS kept me updated on how Delilah was doing. Every few months I would receive a phone call from a random number from anywhere in the country and every time the message was the same….. “Hello we were just on vacation in Florida and our driver (Miss Carol drove for Lyft and Uber for her retirement gig) gave us your number. Our family is looking for a Labrador retriever And Carol said yours were the best in the country! Her and Delilah were best friends. They did everything together and she told EVERYONE about her best friend. I am so so sorry that Delilah lost her person. But I’m so glad she had her in the first place. Miss carols last wish was that Delilah could spend the rest of her days with Kayla Audrey and I and she could have a farm to run on.
Ms. Carol she has a farm and a recliner that she gets to share with our pack just like shes one of ours..
