The first time I laid eyes on her was forty years ago. Her owner said she was the runt, then six weeks old or so.<\/p>\n
I shod the owner\u2019s horses and he paid me with the pup. I named her Mia, not sure why, then watched my pup grow up.
\nI\u2019d never owned a dog like her, the Irish setter kind. Right off, we were the best of friends, to me, the perfect kind.
\nHer energy was endless. Seemed she\u2019d run and never stop. But she was needing of some manners, then she\u2019d be cream of the crop.
\nI bought a book called, \u201cTeach Your Dog.\u201d But I guess I didn\u2019t try. \u2018Cuz when it came to teaching her, we didn\u2019t see eye to eye.
\nMia shot that look at me, the one we all have seen: \u201cWe\u2019re really trying this again?\u201d You know just what I mean.
\nSo I tossed the book to file 13 and hoped it\u2019d find the fire. I swear the book made me to feel like a dummy out for hire.
\nOne day I took her hunting hoping she might have some fun. But two shots from my loud 12ga sent my best friend on the run.
\nIt took me two full days to get my Irish setter back. So when it came to hunting, guess she didn\u2019t have the knack.
\nHow could I be angry when she ran away to hide. Aside from shooting she was always right there by my side.
\nAt night when I\u2019d be driving home, she\u2019d be waiting at the gate. I could see the red a mile away. I knew how I did rate.
\nShe would jump right in the pickup bed and ride to the home place. We\u2019d finish all the nighttime chores then to the house we\u2019d race.
\nOne night while I was driving in I didn\u2019t see her jump. I heard my setter give a yelp, then felt an awful bump.
\nWell, sure enough my dog was gone. It happened all too fast. My grandma taught me years ago, good things don\u2019t always last.
\nCrying wouldn\u2019t bring her back, but my kids sure howled some tears. And quietly I shed a few. She\u2019d been my friend for years.
\nSo I made a headstone for my dog, and on that rock was penned, \u201cYou weren\u2019t much good at hunting but you sure were my best friend.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n
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\u2013 Bryce Angell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The first time I laid eyes on her was forty years ago. Her owner said she was the runt, then six weeks old or so. I shod the owner\u2019s horses and he paid me with the pup. I named her Mia, not sure why, then watched my pup grow up. I\u2019d never owned a dog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":20768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cowboy-poetry","8":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23012,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23011\/revisions\/23012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}