Jim Forkum's Hunting Journal

My Life With Birddogs

Part I Volume I

Authored by:
Jim Forkum

It all started sometime around late 1970. I graduated from college and started dating my
wife. We married a couple of years later. Her family still lived in what was considered a
fairly rural part of Nashville, Tennessee. The area is actually called “Madison” and is a
part of Nashville. Thirty five years later it still maintains much of that rural flavor with small
farms still existing in the lower part of Neely’s Bend. William Neely was an early settler
who was killed by Indians and the area was named for him and his family. The area is rich
in history with evidence of Native Americans who once lived there and hunted along the
Cumberland River. In the late 1700’s the Long Hunters arrived and they settled this fertile
farm land. Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage is just across the river in Old Hickory,
Tennessee. Five members of my wife’s ancestors (the Menees family) fought in the war of
1812 along side President Jackson.

I will never forget the first invitation from my wife’s father to go “bird hunting”. I had been
a dog lover growing up but had never seen a working dog in the field before. He had a
setter by the name of Queen and I can still remember the black and white markings as
well as the way she actually set on point. Rather than stand she would lay down as the
dogs of old were trained to do before the hunter cast a net over dog and birds. Rather
than it being a fault I just passed it off as an original gene from the old breeds. Who cared
she found her birds and held them in her own way. We had fun even though our shooting
was not always the best. Actually my father in law was a pretty accurate shooter. I was off
and on from week to week. My brother in law was always consistently bad with his
shooting.

It was only natural that I would fall in love with the sport of bird hunting. It only made
sense. I loved dogs and I loved to hunt. I was ready to go every weekend and was
disappointed if other plans interfered with our hunting. My brother in law and father in law
were usually my hunting companions in those first years. I did not have my own dog and
owned no land. I went several years before I got my first bird dog. Most of my wife’s
uncles and aunts owned small farms where I could take my dog and hunt. Hunting by
myself became more common as it became a passion with me. It was relaxing after
spending a whole week working and cooped up in an office with computers and people.
Weekends ended too soon and on Mondays I was already planning my next bird hunting
opportunity..

My first bird dog was a learning experience to say the least. She was a great pet and a
great bird finder. I can’t tell you how many times old Kate found birds but more times than
not ran them up before I was in gun range. There was one covey that stayed in a certain
part of the river bottom and you could count on finding them 70% of the time. Kate knew
this all too well. No matter how loud I called or yelled to her to “whoa”, she would head
for this spot in a dead run. I tried every thing including the different ways that I would take
to get to this particular spot. Nothing worked as Kate knew every approach and angle
when we would get close to this field. Getting there she would be on point and I would be
trying to make up the hundred or more yards to get within gun range. Almost every time I
would see the birds rise and sail through the trees and on across the river without me
ever firing a shot. I blamed Kate’s fault on me since I was new at this and did not do a
good job of training her. After all I was new at this too! She did have a great nose and
would have learned to hold her birds if I had trained her properly. There was a time that I
was looking for her and when I found her she was pointed in a corn field. This is a point I
will always remember with old Kate as her body was rigid, tail up, and eyes fixed on birds
hunkered down in that cornfield. Maybe she hated to hear me shoot or it could be she
was a conservationist but as soon as she saw me she broke point and scattered the
covey.

Old Kate made a great pet and she was a good retriever. In later years she would go and
fetch my paper every morning. The road was over three hundred feet from the house so
this was a great help to me and my wife.
Kate’s biggest contribution was the litter of Pointer Pups that she had at two and one half
years of age. This was my first litter too. She had ten pups and nine of them lived. Anyone
who has ever raised puppies knows that it is not an easy task. Old Kate told me when it
was time for her to wean them. Using a blender I mixed special foods for them until they
could eat regular dog food. Shots and worming were the other parts to keeping the
puppies healthy. I even built a special cage with a dog house to keep the puppies off the
ground until they were six weeks old.

More on the Pointer Pups in Part II of my life with Birddogs.