20/20

[Todd Duncan Tennyson]

My old boy Alex

He’s pushing 12 years afield.
Old
hard
and stubborn

He hurts
But never lets it show
I try to follow that lead

He hunts hard and works

I admire him

I can not communicate with him like I used to.

He is deaf
Deaf like a shout & a war fought over his head

far from dumb

He can read my face,
My motions
My gestures

The way I stand
the way I rise from a chair

I snap my fingers to test
Once on the left.
Once on the right

nothing


Call his name as he lays beside me
There is no response

I smack the floor with my hand and he perks up.

I motion him to “come to” and he does
Licking my face.

I’ve a deaf dog.

I’d eat bees for him

I sign down,
He hits the dirt

I sign come
He comes

his tired ears
their loss

Bittersweet

We’ll keep on working the river,
Just me and him


Until the day

that there's no spirit

Calling us to come

 

[Eric Esper]

Dude, your killing me.

 

[Jim S]

Todd,

Love the pics! Excellent tribute to a great dog and a good friend!
Thanks for sharing,
Jim S

 

[Shermie]

man o man thats sum dawg you got there give em another treat for me and a big ol belly rub...
like huntin the mergs eh! any tips on eatin them there one of my favs to ,sum say my taste buds are way off ,but i love eiders better..

shermie...

 

[Todd Duncan Tennyson]

Haa, Shermie, You know as well as I do that a dog likes jerky just as much from a duck or a Mergie.

High protein snacks for a hound
*may cause hearing loss*

 

[Gary March]

Great photo essay Todd! As always, You keep me coming back to this site for more. I dread the day when (River) follows alex's shoes. Maybe it will be time for me then to. Thanks so much. Pic of River yesterday at 5 yrs old. More to come I hope.

Gary March

 

[Denny Budd]

Very nice as usual. I look forward to reading your posts.

 

[Todd Duncan Tennyson]

Jees Gary,
Glad you liked the story,

That is a great photo of a perfect day..

what a spot you have up on the river, great boat,
great hound,
great deeks ... Damn!

and they are all so organized.

Enjoy every day you can spend
doing what you love
with the spirits of those you love the most.

 

[Todd Duncan Tennyson]

I'm working on a book of sorts and am using some of my old material that I put up years back.

Unfortunately, I have never been very successful posting my stories on this forum because it throws up weird characters etc, (especially when I use quotation marks.)

Sometimes it works, sometimes it just doesn't.

Eric helped me about a decade back and things were good, but now it is doing it again. Hopefully the newer online arrangements will make it easier for me to share with you guys.

For now, I am putting up short stories and some hunting photo essay material which some of you may enjoy.

If you'd like to check them out, please check the substack here: https://toddduncantennyson.substack.com/.

I'll be adding to it frequently with many other tales.

Thanks Guys (and Dani)

 

[Eric Patterson]

Tod

Standard keyboard quotation marks, single or double won't cause problems. These are near the "return" or "enter" key. If you use a mobile device or any software to type a message that is using "smart quotes", aka quotes that lean in or out, it will crash when you hit submit. Those aren't standard keyboard characters and have only come into being in recent times. The forum software can't store them in the database because the database has no idea what they are.

Eric