Lula became the number one dog in Doug's pack and he would never part with her. Her second litter came in the spring of 1996, on June 29th to be exact. The father was a dog Doug had picked up in the woods called Jake. Jake wasn't as friendly and trusting as Lula but he seemed to have a good nose so he and Lula were wed. Again, she had several puppies with all being colored the conventional black, white and tan.

This time I asked Doug if I could have one of the pups but leave it with him. I would pay for its shots and food as well as any other medical needs so that it wouldn't cost him anything to keep an extra dog in the kennel. He thought this was a good plan as did my wife. A dog without a dog so to speak. I went to visit Doug and see the puppies several times. Though not sure where I got it—it may have been out of the Reader's Digest—I had come up with some things to do to test a puppy and determine if it had the traits of a good hunting dog. These were to be done after the puppy was weaned. I don't recall all of the aspects but these are some that I do remember:

1. After bringing the puppies some short ways away from where they normally stay, make a loud noise and watch their reaction. The paper suggested that if the puppy ran all the way back to its safe haven it was too timid; if the pup stayed at the location where the noise was made it was too stupid to know it was in trouble; but if the animal ran off a few feet or yards and stopped and turned as if to say, "What in H E double hockey sticks was that?" it was smart enough to save itself but inquisitive enough to want to know what was going on.

2. Turn the puppies over on their backs. The ones that squirmed and would not lie still were too assertive and had to be in control. Those that lay there quietly showed trust and a willingness to be submissive.

3. Take a piece of meat and some blood. Let the puppy smell and eat small pieces of the meat until you know they like it and understand what its scent means. Then take a scrap of meat, hold it under the pup's nose until it gets the scent, then drop your hand to the ground still holding the meat and drag it away for several feet. This tests the pup's nose, as one with a good nose will pick up the scent trail and follow it to the scrap. One without a nose will just sit there wondering where the treat went.

The second part of this test was to take the blood and create a scent trail by applying drops to the ground. Placing the animal near one end of the trail should result in its discovery of the scent and following the trail to the other end if the dog has a good nose.

Socks (Molly) on testing day.

I did these tests with Lula's pups. Two of them did very well in each category. One had been named Freckles due to the small tan spots on her muzzle and white forelegs. The other Doug had named Socks because the white on her forelegs came up almost to her shoulders, making her look like she had socks on. Doug wanted to keep Freckles for himself so I settled on Socks. I did ask him to change her name to Molly. That name was derived from a history of Molly dogs in the Davis family starting when my father was a kid. One of our Mollies had been a small beagle-like female. Thus, it came to be that I had a hunting dog without having a dog, a compromise that made everyone happy. I would run over to Doug's house on a Saturday or Sunday to see how Lula and Molly were doing.

Each year Doug would have a cookout at his place where he would prepare and serve nothing but wild game with all the trimmings. There were pork, turkey, deer, squirrel, rabbit and fish. The beer and mixed drinks flowed freely and all of Doug's friends were invited. This was an annual event and I had gone to one or two but Pam had never been. In 1996 I convinced her to go with me to enjoy the food and see Molly for the first time. She had seen some pictures I had taken but had not yet met the real deal. Suffice to say Pam enjoyed the food and drink and liked Molly. In her alcohol-induced moment of weakness she told me to bring Molly home but I knew she would not feel the same way when the buzz wore off so I left Molly at Doug's. The next day she didn't change her mind and said I could bring Molly home. I was not aware at that time that my three sons (now wouldn't that make a snazzy sitcom title) had been chastising Pam for not letting me have a dog and she did not mention this to me until later.

In preparation for September and Lula's annual vacation and to be used at camp where there was little cover, I had built a dog house. Ostensibly, this was for Lula to stay in when we did go up to camp. I made a shingle for it too that hung over the door. On one side I lettered Lula's name but on the back I placed Molly's. The sign could be swapped to display either moniker. Pam didn't see the back side nor did I show her until after she had told me we could keep Molly.

The day after she told me I could have Molly with us I went to Doug's house after work to pick her up and bring her home. Pam was working her job as a nurse's aide at a nursing home. I brought Molly in and put her on a leash. I led her down the hall and Pam saw us coming; although I feared she would be angry, she wasn't. I told her that we would keep Molly outside as we had discussed when she gave in to the whole idea of having a dog around again. Molly would stay on the screen porch or outside sleeping in the doghouse I had built. When Pam came home that evening and readied for bed, we put Molly on the screen porch. That idea lasted about 15 minutes after I went to bed. Molly let out a few whimpers and Pam opened the door and let her in. Molly entered, ran up the hall, jumped on the bed and has slept there with us since. She also became an aficionado of sleeping under the top bed cover.

After Molly came to stay, I worked with her trying to teach her how to trail and track but I had never trained a hunting dog and had no clue as to how to go about it. I did have some deer meat in the refrigerator that I would use to create a scent trail. Also, I had met another fellow who owned some land nearby and would let me take Molly out to it to run. He also owned deer dogs and had some deer parts in his freezer for training purposes. He was kind enough to give me one. I cut the leg and the tarsal gland on it into pieces, leaving the hide or fur on them. I would then drag a segment around our back yard and let Molly find it. She reveled in this and did very well. It wasn't long before I could drag a small piece of deer leg all around the neighborhood and let her loose. She would trail it to the end, find it, and, scooping it into her mouth, run home to show off her prize—a prize that she would then consume eagerly, bones and all. I would do this same thing at camp later in the year, getting friends to drag the pieces so that I could be sure it was the deer scent and not mine that she was trailing. It was but a short time before she, like Lula, enjoyed chasing deer more than anything else.

Continued—»