Dani, I've never met you, but feel like I know you well from your posts. Like many other on this website we love and appreciate our dogs. It only takes me about 15 minutes to bond with me new dogs; some have been pups and others several years old. I've been a hunter for at least 65 years, and have made many trips to Montana chasing sharptails, huns, sagegrouse, ducks and pheasant,(also elk, antelope, and white tail and mule deer), I really love your tribute to your recently departed family member; we can't just call them pets. And your photos are fantastic, I feel for you, having lost many hunters myself; it's a shame their lives are so short.