Farewell, Miss Julie: Or The Spoiled-Rotten Bird Dogs

People who love dogs will find adventure, humor, and pathos in this family story. If every man needs one good woman and one good dog in his lifetime, Dad found both. Although the woman and their children appear throughout this book, the story focuses on the dog and her man. Julie was an undersized Llewellin English setter, amiable of disposition, and freckled of face. Dad, an avid outdoorsman, doted on her shamelessly for seventeen years. They roamed the great outdoors, sharing adventures with game birds, varmints, white-water rivers, and hang-gliders. So inseparable were they, Mama once remarked, "If that dog could cook and make love, I''d be out of a job!" Julie would never have won a field trial, but she became a serious bird dog, hunting bobwhites and ruffed grouse in the Appalachians. Later, the game was valley and mountain quail in California. She learned not to chase rabbits and deer, but Dad was powerless over her ground-hog addiction. Upon encountering a woodchuck, her eyes would glow with the joy of combat, and she would attack with colors flying. In the field, it was all business, but the professional training fraternity would curl its collective lip to see Dad coddle his dogs around the house. With her second litter, Julie produced a handsome co-character, Pretty Boy. Julie perfected a guilt-inducing stare that paid off in shares of whatever snack was being consumed. She endeared herself to all with her dance of joy when an outing appeared imminent. Disapproval was expressed by a disdainful sneer. In her old age, arthritis overwhelmed her. Dad tirelessly medicated and massaged her, but finally had to accept the only thing to do for a painfully crippled dog that implored him for relief. Most of the action occurs in Virginia, California, and Florida.