Hunting Dog Blues

Yesterday, I was just about to drift off to a peaceful late Saturday afternoon siesta when I heard howling and sheep bells. I hear these noises almost every day in hunting season but always in the distance. There are woods below us where there is plenty of hunt g going on for boar. When you walk in the woods, you can see the earth ripped up from the boar trying to get to acorns, their favorite food.

I got up and went outside to see if I could be of assistance. All of the dogs around were barking..the Irish setter above me , Bella, The 2 blonde sister dogs on the west side, the giant dog below, Teo, his race I cannot seem to remember, he is unusual and about the size of a big Newfoundland but brown and black, long haired. Anyway, I searched and found the doggie that was in distress. He was a tall hound, white with black and brown spots. He had long floppy ears. Around his neck was a bright orange collar with the owners number on it and the loud sheep bell. This dog was oblivious to me. He had been at his profession for quiet some time and was on
was only concerned with smells. He was going round and round nose to the ground, smelling everything. Every once in while he would pick his head up and mournfully moan. I could not grab him. He had no interest in me and barely looked at me as I chased him across the lawn, around tress, down the hill to my proprietress house.

Then, I heard a second sheep bell. On the other side of the fence was an other dog, same type but younger.
( as an aside....am I crazy or is it easy to see if a dog is young or old? I don't mean the obvious puppy vs the full grown, I mean , can you tell if one dog is younger tha the other when they are adults? I knew someone that could not tell at all the age of a dog or if one was young. It's very apparent to me.)
This younger dog did look at me and I could see he was distressed. These doggies were stuck in the neighborhood in peoples fenced in yards. An old man appeared in the yard where the younger dog was and tried to shoo him away. We started a french conversation and the my proprietress appeared.
We both convinced the man to grab the young dog and she would call the number on the collar.
I felt terrible for this sweet boy. I threw a leash down to the man and told him I would come down and pick him up so the 2 dogs would be together.

I drove down and met the man who was struggling to control the dog on the leash. He was very strong and was studying smells all the way. I opened the back door to my rental car, ( see the previous story) and we tried to wrestle the dog in. I have a bit of a fear of being bit in the face ( as anyone that knows me well knows why.) the old man took the front of the dog and I took the back and we got him into the car. The dog was very very thin in his waist area. The french word used was " meagre". Hé was  sweet and gentle just kind of oblivious to civilization. I tried to give him a dog bone...he smelled it all over but would not eat it.

I drove back to Madame L. and we waited for the owner. . The older dog had disappeared. An old dark blue van pulled up and stopped above us on the hill. ( the property I live on is all on a hill with a winding dirt road through ancient olive trees.) the hunter got out and the first thing he wanted to know is if we had seen a boar....he didn't care about lost dogs.
He was about 28, a little pudgy and pale. He had on an electric orange baseball like cap with the brim turned to the side. He was in full hunting camo with a vest that had buckshot (?) shells in it.
I was start into to get attached to this young dog. It had warmed to me and was now all tail wags and love in my direction. I wanted to purloin this dog and give it a good life. He would have gladly complied.

I could see that the man was not so bad. He was like the other dog, all about the hunt. His whole life seemed to be dedicated to killing defenseless animals for sport. However, he could see that I really loved the young dog and in his eyes I could see that he loved dogs too...so I felt a little better.
The young dog put his long face in my hands as I knelt down to him and closed his eyes as I rubbed his chin. He looked exhausted. How I wish I could have taken him and given him a different life.
He reminded me so much of my darling dog Eddie who I did rescue from the hunt.

I keep thinking of this dog now and feel sad about it but I have learned that I have to find a way to let these things go.