This second story is sort of a mixture of fact and fiction, it was an attempt on my part to marry together some of the many little expeditions Jerry and I went on together and how it could have unfolded on one of them.

Uncle Jerry Goes Hunting

Uncle Jerry was fast asleep behind the stove in the kitchen. His legs and feet were twitching and he was making small noises in his sleep. Strange behavior for someone's Uncle you think?  Perhaps for some Uncles, but not this one, for this Uncle was actually a dog!  Yes a dog, a dog named Uncle Jerry!

Now Uncle Jerry wasn't just any dog, he thought of himself as being very special and he considered himself lucky to live with a special family.  He regarded the family members as his humans and found himself often in the position where he had to forgive them for forgetting who was actually the boss. There were three humans in his household.  The oldest who Uncle Jerry usually thought of as "Softie" was away frequently, he usually cooperated with Uncle Jerry's wishes, they often had quiet times together out in the garden and could always be counted on for a tasty morsel at the human's meal time.  The next was "the Mom", now this human often confused Uncle Jerry, he couldn't get away with bossing her as much as the others, yet she was always the one that made sure he had fresh water and usually fed him.  The last was "Friend".  This one didn't confuse Uncle Jerry at all, he didn't always understand him but they were friends and that was all that really mattered.

Suddenly Uncle Jerry woke up, sat up, stretched and came out from behind the stove.  "Its time", he thought to himself, "Friend one should be here any moment".  Sure enough the thought had hardly been made, when the sound of a gate being opened and then closed could be heard by Uncle Jerry. "I think I'll just ignore him today", Uncle Jerry thought to himself, "I'll make him fuss over me and then I'll pretend to be glad to see him."  However as the door opened, Uncle Jerry suddenly started barking, crying and turning in circles as though trying to catch his stubby tail.  "Hi, hi Jerry!” cried Friend, " Glad to see me are you?" and he bent over and gave Uncle Jerry a thorough and satisfying back scratch and ear rub.  "Darn", thought Uncle Jerry, " I just can't seem to help myself, but what the heck, he gave me a good scratch and I wasn't really undignified."

Friend went on into his room with Uncle Jerry trailing behind.  "Well Jerry, what would you like to do today?" asked Friend.  Now Uncle Jerry had learned that often you had to humor humans and when they asked questions even though they knew he couldn't really talk, sometimes it was better to pretend he just didn’t understand.  So this time he just wagged his stub tail and waited to see if Friend already had a plan for their mutual enjoyment.  "You don't know eh, well I have an idea, why don't we go grouse hunting?"

Now Uncle Jerry didn't know all the words that humans used, just as they didn't always understand him, but he did know what hunting meant.  He loved to hunt!  With the question he immediately started dancing around and crying and yipping, which in dog language meant lets go, lets go!

A short time later the two companions were on their way to the forest across the road from their house.  Friend said, " I think we'll go up that old logging road that goes parallel to the creek and come back along the other road that goes across the top of the big hill".  Uncle Jerry thought, "I don't care which way we go, let’s just up".

To Uncle Jerry's dismay they had hardly entered the forest when Friend said, "Ok Jerry, you have to heel!"

"Heel! Heel!” thought Uncle Jerry, "you said we’re going hunting, how can I hunt if I’m walking behind you?"

"Don't look at me like that", cried Friend, " you either do as I say or we go back right now!"