Cash started his life in papillion Nebraska. I was lucky enough to find him off a Facebook ad. I was I Colorado custom harvesting wheat so I begged my mom to go pick him up for me since I wouldn’t be able to for a couple more months and finally she agreed. this adorable little black lab puppy won her heart at first sight on their trip home cash puked and pooped in the car lucky he was cute so he was easily forgiven! When I finally returned home I knew the moment I met cash he was special with a loving personality and a desire to please he was a breeze to train. through the years we did everything together shared hundreds of hunts together across multiple states. Through out the just over a decade we spent together Cash retrieved over 1000 birds each with just as much enthusiasm as the last. as a dog owner every hunt is special but there is always one that will stick with you forever, Cash, my brother and I made a trip out to a spot on the Big Blue River near Waterville Kansas that we had hunted many times before. it was a crisp foggy morning with fresh snow on the ground  the action was pretty slow but that was fine we we were seeing a few birds. finally we heard whistling coming down the river moments later we had a flock of 4 common goldeneye emerge through the fog and set into the decoys as shots erupted I downed one of the drakes. Cash quivered with anticipation waiting to be released CASH!  just like he had done so many times before he plunged into the icy water and pushed through the swift river current to retrieve him for me just like he always has. At 12 years old he’s mind was still the 5 year old lab in his prime running over Canada Geese 400 yards away like a freight train and picking up 50 birds a single day. But he moved much slower and joints were stiff now his body just wouldn’t let him do the things he loved. unfortunately there comes a day for every retriever to hang up they’re tattered vest and retire. Today was that day for him, How bitter sweet a gun dogs last retrieve is sweet for getting to put a pin in a incredible career while doing what they love but  also bitter, knowing they’ll never feel the frigid wind in their fur watching a flock of geese maple leaf into the decoys while eagerly waiting for the blind to erupt in gun fire, watch the birds crumple and plunge into the water, waiting every fiber of your body tense waiting for the ok to go……..CASH! 

“A dog does not live as long as a man and this natural law is the fount of many tears. If a boy and puppy might grow to manhood and doghood together, and together ghrow old, and so in due course die, full many a heartache might be avoided. But the world is not so ordered, and dogs will die and men will weep for them so long as there are dogs and men.”
– Ben Ames Williams, Bird Dog Book, 1989