Your Friendly Neighborhood K9 Pharmacy

We hunted pheasants this evening for a little more than an hour at Schmitter Heritage Wildlife Area, which is approximately 40 minutes southwest of Iowa City. It looked like nice habitat, but we only had 1 bird contact. Winnie & Maggie trailed a bird for a hundred yards or so before it flushed wild out in front of them - putting it on the edge of  shooting range for us. Dan got off a shot & drew feathers, but didn’t hit it hard enough to knock it down.  Although my first shot came as the bird was probably about out of range, I knew he had been hit, so I tried to help out (unsuccessfully). With the same theory in mind, Dan went ahead and took a second shot, but was also unsuccessful in connecting.

Winnie continues to look healthy & is hunting well. Maggie also appears to have more stamina than I expected (given that she’s 11 years old & I don’t get her nearly enough regular exercise) & seems to be feeling better than I would have expected (arthritis issues). Let’s hope this trend continues for both of them.  The pheasant hunting hours in Iowa being different than anywhere else we have ever hunted is causing us to adjust some of our plans & typical ways of doing things...

With another night ahead of us with low temps in the teens, we are going to switch up the schedule for tomorrow & hunt pheasants in the morning & ducks in the afternoon - with the hope of warmer temperatures through the day causing more ducks to be moving later in the afternoon (as opposed to first thing in the am). Also, afternoon/evening duck hunting appears to be the norm around here, based on what we see the local duck hunters doing. Tomorrow's forecasted high is 30, with even warmer days ahead later in the week.

We are getting into the groove of our schedule now, although keeping the cocktail of meds straight for the dogs is a challenge (Winnie for her fungal infection, arthritis, and some new stuff as a result of the overdose & Mag for arthritis & her overactive thyroid). If anyone in this area needs doggie meds, they could come ask us - we probably have them...