Letter to the Editor

A tribute to Red and Erik Anderson

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Dear Editor:

A card of thanks.

Let me tell you folks about my good dog Red. I bought the little fuzzball on a clear November night in the desert town of El Centro, Calif., in 1993. Paid 20 bucks for him.

Half Lab, half German shorthair pointer, I thought he might make a decent bird dog in the field and on the water. Man was I wrong, because he wasn't decent. He was awesome.

The night I brought him home, I thought he might have been dropped on his head or something, because he never cried. He just looked around. I guess he knew he was where he belonged.

I started training him the next day, and he was only seven weeks old. He was extremely easy to train, all it took was a little patience and a lot of love.

It took less than a week to housebreak him, and he never did it again. When he figured out something was bad, he just quit doing it. I never had to hit him.

The next hunting season, he was retrieving like an old pro. I was a member of a duck club there in the desert, "Los Patos Bravos," (The Brave Ducks), and when someone lost a duck, they'd come get me and Red to find it and he always did.

Red had one little drawback out in the field: he had a mind of his own.

If someone was shooting more doves down the treeline, that's where he'd go. If you missed a shot on a cock pheasant, he'd chase it into the next field, and there were times when he'd run off after a morning in the duck blind, and he'd strut into camp an hour later with a live duck in his mouth! He loved to hunt.

He slept on the floor by my bed his whole life. He was family. I went through some hard times and lived in some bad places, and he stuck with me all the way. He saw more of the country than most dogs, being uprooted several times before calling Nevada home.

These last few years of his life were good ones, and I'm glad for it. He lived good in his retirement, getting lots of love from me and my folks who live here too.

I had to put him down today. His back legs finally gave out. I went to Doc Anderson of 54 Vet and told him it was time. He's been good to our pooches over the years, and today was no different.

It was late in the day; he was entertaining company, and he was dressed in fancy clothes. He answered the door with a child in his arms. He said he'd be right over. He put my Red down gently and kindly. I offered payment. He said not to worry about it. There is no better vet than Doc Anderson. Thank you, Erik.

Guy Manning

Nevada