I have written a couple fishing articles for Michigan-Sportsman.com but this will be my first try at a humorous story.  Although it’s a story - it is mostly true at least as much as I can remember!

To start with, my hunting partner who I have known for most of my life (we still argue over it but I still think we met in the fifth grade, he says sixth).  We started hunting together when we both skipped school opening day of pheasant season and met in a field over by my house.  We went to different grade schools but went through junior and high school together. Even though we don't pheasant hunt anymore, we always hunt openers of grouse season and most weekends all season.  Back then we were just a couple crazy kids without dogs that loved to bird hunt all day.

After all these years we're a couple old farts that still love to chase birds but we use my setters now and we don't walk all day anymore. We have a lot in common,…. he has a new hip and I have a new knee but we both still limp badly depending on the weather. We have been grouse hunting the same area for over thirty years out of my buddies trailer that he has left on state land all these years.

This story starts on a four-day weekend grouse hunt this fall.  It was in the low seventies everyday so my buddy had to drink a lot of beer to stay hydrated (at least that’s his story).  When he does that it means no sleep for me, because you'll never meet anybody that can snore like him when he has a few ginger-ales.  It was warm and the dogs didn't hunt well due to heat and no wind.  Gnats were terrible and everything was going bad. Plus, my buddy stayed well hydrated so I hadn't had slept much either which didn't help.

The last night of the hunt was just like the last three, it was about fifty degrees when I went to bed.  My female setter was in the front seat of the truck and the pup was in the dog box in the back.  My old setter was in bed with me and my buddy was “sleeping it off” and snoring up a storm.  We don't have any power up there and after hunting in the heat all day with hardly any sleep I just crashed about 7 p.m.  About 10 p.m. my female’s barking woke me up so I went out and grabbed her, brought her in, and threw her in bed with my buddy.  He was passed out and didn't know the difference (isn't this what friends are for?) and I went back to bed.  Around midnight,… I'm not sure because I hadn't had enough sleep to gain all my senses back, I heard this blood curling sound and I looked at both dogs and all their hair was standing on end.  I lay there for a minute and decided it was a combination of coyotes singing and my pup trying his best to sing along.  The “singing coyotes” were very close so I grabbed my flashlight and went out in my underwear to pee and check on the pup.  I could see there was no way I was going to get any sleep if I left the pup in the truck to sing with the yotes.

Now my pup has poor trailer skills and that is why he stays in the truck. The front of the trailer is where we eat and my buddy’s old hair hound stays up there,…. that's his end of the trailer.  Having two dogs who both try to eat anything that hits the floor first doesn't work well.  So the old hound growls and even though the pup is four times larger than the old hound, he rules the table end of the trailer.  Now the back of the trailer is where we sleep and the old setter has ruled that end for years.  He gives the old hound the table and he wants the bed end instead.  The setter is smarter than the hound.  He learned that when we sit at the table we are hungry enough that most food doesn't miss our mouths, and the beds sleep much better than the floor under the table.

I told you we have no power in the trailer and, well,.. there is no heat either.  It’s cold enough to see your breath in the trailer and since the pup got put in the box around 6 p.m. and it's now after midnight, he's rested up and wants to play and after singing with the coyotes.  He would run up front jump on the table, the old hound would growl, then he would run and jump on the bed and the old setter would growl at him. After four or five passes I finally grabbed him and held him on the bed.  I'm sitting there in my undies freezing my butt off and he's on his back wiggling around and making these eer err sounds.  This was more than the old setter could handle.  He was sound asleep and warm under the bag til this young upstart came in.  He gets up growls shows his teeth and the pup decides he means business and finally lays still.

I finally decided if I was going to get any sleep at all, and not freeze to death, the old dog would have to go under the outside of the bag and I'd put the pup inside the bag with me.  This sure sounded good and it worked for about 15 minutes until everything got quiet and the pup (that actually weights around 50 lbs. and is almost two years old) decides to go back to making those eer eer sounds and sliding down the inside of the bag.  Due to the size of both of us, the bag unzipped, the pup almost fell out and the old setter decided to bite him to show him who was boss.  Of course the old setter bites me, I kicked him off the bed, he ran up, jumped on the table, the old hound starts howling, he runs back jumps on the bed so the pup runs, and jumps on the table like it was a relay race.  So after a couple of laps I got the dogs all lying down again and I was still freezing

After a while I finally got the bag zipped back up, warmed up and finally dozed off listening to the pup singing with the coyotes back in the truck.  My buddy woke up the next morning with a hangover, a dog in bed with him and not a clue as to what all went on the night the pups first time in the bag (and the last)!