Bittersweet.

 The hunt started at 11 am - of course it was raining but we expected it to clear and a call found them already running the hunts. David gave Reuben medication to keep him from getting carsick, something we were all grateful for, especially Pearl who had to ride  in the back with him. The ride up was beautiful, the place was On Point Outfitters in Confluence PA and if you ever get chance, go whether you're hunting or not. Especially for the fall leaves and just the drive, if we hadn't had the crew with us we would have stopped many times. If you're wondering what the vegetarian did on a hunt - took the pictures of course. Reuben was a bit skittish to start, he's been training with Pearl but that's not the real world. The first bird he flushed he went right in, but it made a noise and they both jumped and shrieked. But after that he caught on and was right on the money. Pearl flushed a couple - but we could see that as much as she wanted to, her body is no longer able to hunt like she has in the past. The place we went to was wonderful, David asked them to plant the field close in and the guy came to check on us a couple of times and would have given Pearl and I a ride back if we needed it. But despite things, Pearl hunted with David and the pest and even showed him up a  couple of times. Two hours into the field and she was done, so I offered to walk her back to the truck and David took the pest off to hunt a little bit more. Pearl enjoyed the walk back, she was ambling along and snuffling - it was a little like our past hikes, just the two of us in the woods and the rest of the world at bay. Reuben will eventually be my hiking buddy but right now I can't even think about that. When we got back she ran to a car with the back open, I could see the back of her, tail wagging madly and I ran to get her - I was sure she was raiding some one's lunch. But she was making friends with a very wet black Labrador retriever, happily touching  noses with him - since one of her pals is a black lab she considers them all friends. We sat in the truck for an hour while David finished up- she was exhausted but I could see she wanted to go back out but she was so tired she was shaking and cold. David and Reuben got one more, Reuben prancing around like dogs past, all jazzed up and no where to go. We hit a farm stand on the way back with a chatty old guy that handed out free popcorn with your pumpkins. Pearl and I ate it  together, Reuben just snored all the way home -between the activity and the Dramamine he was out for the count. So, that's the hunting report - Pearl has been not too bad and we think that she (hopefully) will be able to do a little bit more if David just takes her for a short time and without Reuben Boobin bouncing along. But I was glad we did that today, it was actually a lot of fun I have to admit. I was happy to be a part of it, happy for her,but it was hard too, seeing the change in her and the changes ahead. But for now she's pretty happy, not suffering and continues to school Reuben on a daily basis on the fact he is not the boss.