Vacation – Day Twelve

Yesterday the pups and I went to Emerald Isle to visit Donnie, Reyna’s SAR trainer. It was a 2 hour and 45 minute drive, but would have taken much less time if it had been highway most of the way. Unfortunately, 70 bypass is 55mph a lot of the way, and 58 is a two land road with a ridiculous number of drivers who think its fun to go 10mph or more under the speed limit… But its not a bad drive, for all of that. Not that I’d want to do it much more than once a year.

While we were there, Donnie had a SAR track laid for Reyna, and she was so clearly excited to be working again. I’m surprised at how well she seems to do with long drives. I thought she’d get stiff, but she moves better after a drive than she does before. And she certainly isn’t resting during the drive, so its not that. She settled down on the way home, after we got off of the two lane road. And she did actually nap - for about 20 minutes.

Part of the reason we went down – besides seeing Donnie and letting Reyna run a track – was to get Reyna’s Level 2 SAR certificate. Donnie kept refusing to bring it to me while we were training this past fall, using it as a bribe to get me to visit. He also kept offering me fresh venison, but only if I drove down to get it. Since he knew we were coming yesterday, he shot a deer on Saturday. He kept some of it for himself, but he gave me both shoulders and part of a flank. So I spent a couple of hours today doing something I’ve never done before – carving up deer parts. It was actually a lot easier than getting the meat off of rabbit bones, but I’m sure any self-respecting butcher would shudder at the job I did. In my defense, though, it was my first deer, there’s definitely a learning curve, and I don’t exactly have the best tools on hand for this sort of thing. But that’s okay, because the pups and I will be enjoying venison for a while. I’m even considering buying a crock pot. I think a crock pot will make cooking up the rabbits Dad gave me last week a bit easier, too.

Since the pups were so interested in the carving process, I decided to give them a treat. As I finished with each shoulder, I tossed it into the back yard. And since I wasn’t stressing over getting the bones really clean, there was still lots of yummy meat on them. Here’s Reyna with the first shoulder, getting ready to take the bone back in the house.


And Reyna peeping from inside, trying to figure out how serious I was about her not bringing that thing in the house.


Duncan’s trying to decide if its worth risking the wrath of Reyna to try and grab the shoulder (notice its in the pile of leaves at the base of the steps). He decided it wasn’t.


But once the second shoulder bone was outside, nothing was keeping Duncan away from it. Here he’s actually watching Reyna on the other side of the yard, making sure she’s not coming for the bone.


And, well, I think these are pretty self-explanatory.



As a treat for me, I have a chunk of meat marinating in the fridge that will be my dinner tomorrow night.