Underwater Screaming

I got him when I lived in SD, along the last wild stretch of the MO river. Good pheasant hunting, there, so I took him hunting. The first several times we went out he was not good at it. I remember walking through a slough (sp?), which is a low spot where weeds grow thick, and all he did was follow me, stepping on the backs of my shoes and knocking them off. Toward the end of the season I had just about given up on him ever being a hunter, but took him anyway. One day he just "got it". He'd range a few yards ahead of me, flushing everything, and invariably run down anything I shot. Or anybody else shot, for that matter. If I was hunting with friends I'd come out the end of a field with more birds than I could carry. ;->

A good hunting dog makes a lot of difference, too. You don't waste game by shooting it and having it come down "with legs". If they can run, they run off and die in hiding. No one wants that.

He'd act the same way when I walked him at night. This was sort of fun when we'd run into people, because he'd come hurtling in out of the dark (he was almost all black) and scare the shit out of them. Not that he'd ever hurt anyone who wasn't threatening me. I never worried about walking in the dark.

Later, when I moved to WY, we didn't hunt so had to find other things. That's when the friz became a big deal. I'd leave it on the fridge. When Sagan got stir crazy he'd find a way to get on top of the fridge and bring me the friz. He'd plop it in my lap and stare at me, saying "we need to go, boss". Off to the Rio Platte we'd go.

If we went to a field he could run down the friz and catch it in the air, but he really liked to go after it in the water. He was a strong swimmer, and smart. When he got out he'd make sure he was a few steps away from anyone when he shook off. With that long wiry hair of his, that was a good thing. Water would go flying, then he'd pick the friz back up, bring it to me, and "say" "throw it again!" I remember a woman walking by, one day, and saying "he's MAGNIFICENT!"

Yup. Good dog. I think Carl would be proud.

And yeah, we need voices like Carl Sagan's, today.

Have you ever heard of "the Fermi Paradox"? If the odds are high that there are plenty of other planets with intelligent life, why haven't we heard from any of them? Which leads to a theory that intelligence leads to self-extermination.

I don't necessarily agree. The universe is a big ol' place, and we live on a fraction of a pixel, so to speak. So, it could be that we just haven't been found. Or, it could be that after traveling across light-years a ship full of aliens don't want to mess with beings who are crazy enough to have and use atomic weapons. And shit where we live, and deny it has any effect. And find 1000 other ways to commit suicide as a species, then rely on an imaginary space ghost to clean up our messes. At least, I wouldn't land here if I came in peace.