Opening Day

Last year as I prepared to go on a dove hunt, Jane Gray was mighty upset that she was not going with me. I told her that since she was not five years old yet, she would have to wait - well, that time quickly passed. A sweet little girl dressed in camouflage appeared this morning excited about her first dove hunt – the anticipation had been building for the past year. So, as the clouds and rain from hurricane Gustov rolled into town, Jane Gray and I set off for opening day of dove season. After a quick lunch in Yazoo City of hamburgers, fries and of course Oreos, Jane Gray, Pop, Uncle Will and I headed to the dove field. Once we arrived, we were greeted by birds flying everywhere. We quickly received our directions, headed to our spot and settled in. It was not long until the first group of birds came in low over the haystacks to our right, I showed them to Jane Gray, the birds swerved off to the side, I fired a shot and a bird fell. To my surprise, up jumped Jane Gray and she was off after the bird quicker than any retriever I’ve ever seen. Jane Gray quickly learned to tell the difference between doves and other birds as well as what birds were close enough to shoot – her definition of ‘close enough’ was a little larger than mine. After we finished hunting, made rounds visiting everyone and having had enough of the rain, Jane Gray and I decided to head to the truck for a little R&R before going to the post-hunt party – which turned out to be not so much as most of the usual partygoers, like Mom, the Hurst Hoodlums, Fair and Nicki, did not make it due to the weather. Jane Gray’s first dove hunt was a roaring success - we had a great time being outside, watching all the birds, sitting in the rain (the ponchos came in quite handy), visiting with Pop under his umbrella, visiting with Uncle Will and his dog, Josie, eating cookies and Nabs while drinking Kool-Aid and Sprite and seeing the pond where we, Laura, Charlie, Gigi and Grandpa previously caught so many catfish.