Introducing Willow

[Scott Bell]

With Bailey passing away last August, our house seemed pretty quiet last fall. Although she hadn't been hunting the past 3 years, Bailey always followed me to the door and whined when I snuck out in the morning to go hunting, and was there to go crazy when we got home. Our other dog, Kayla, is also older and was never introduced to the hunting world. So, on the last day of finals, the start of my Christmas break, Tonya bought us a new puppy (with help from dad on picking the litter). Willow is right at 3 months old now.

On the left is Christmas Eve, and on the right is 3 days ago (1 month later)... I forgot how quickly they grow! She's nearly outgrown the puppy crate.

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She's adjusted well, and luckily is cute enough that the few 'accidents' she still has and the overall craziness can be overlooked. Yesterday we went for a walk around one of the marshes I hunt frequently and she had a blast. We even sat down on the bank near one of my favorite spots and watched mallards dropping out of the sky to land in the only spot of open water. In 7 more months we'll hopefully find her a few teal out there!

A few more pictures:
The Calm: we got about 2-3 feet of snow while at my sister's house in CO over Christmas
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The Crazy: we've found old dog food bags are great entertainment and fairly durable against those needle-like puppy teeth.
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It should be a fun spring and summer!!!

 

[Huntindave McCann]

Scott,

Puppies, in spite of being a bit of a PITA are still much fun. I like the photo in front of the door. It might make an interesting montage, to duplicate that pose several times, in the coming months and years. Kind of like marking the door jam with height marks as the kids grow. :>)

Thanks for sharing your photos.