Why Am I Here?

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my dog Beaumont figured out why he was born. Every year we take the dogs to Texas and hunt quail and pheasant. In the past it's been Rooger who has always done the hunting. Beaumont has loved going with us, but he really had no clue as to what he was doing. When Rooger gets to hunt, he's all business. It's amazing to watch him find birds. I'd like to take credit for it, I'd like to say that I trained him so well, and worked with him so much, that he has become a good bird dog. The truth is that Rooger was born with it. Rooger has always liked to run around and explore...but there's a switch that flips when we go out and I have a shotgun...something is different...it is more than just goofing around...there are things to find and kill. Beamont on the other hand has always loved running around and goofing off. There has never been a difference in his attitude when we get to Texas, or when I have a gun. He just figured we were at a differnt place to goof around and pee on stuff. He's never been afraid of the gun...the sound doesn't bother him, it's never interrupted his play time. He would fetch the occasional bird after it had been shot, or be running so out of control that he'd accidentally bust the covey. He never scented the covey, he just happened to run through where they were holding. The switch flipped for Beaumont on this trip. I don't know how it happened. I again can take no credit for it...Beaumont was just born with the ability...he had just never used it. On this trip, Beaumont scented a bird. Rooger is pretty far-ranging, as are most pointers. He'll get a long way away from you looking for birds. Once he finds them though, he won't budge, he'll lock down on point and wait for you to get to him so you can flush the covey and shoot the birds. I've even seen Rooger go around to the far side of the covey if they run from him and push them back toward me. How Rooger knows how close he can be to the birds without causing them to fly is beyond me...he just knows it...and will hold those birds on the ground until I'm there. Anyway, Rooger wasn't having any luck where he was, but he was still searching. Beaumont was near me as he usually is. He's a setter which tend to stay near the hunter...and in this case that's where the birds happened to be. Baumont and I were working out way toward a likley looking set of shrubs when Beumont slammed on his brakes, head down, tail high in his first rock-solid point. His eyes were wide open, intenly staring into a clump of grass a few feet in front of him. I was several yards away, told Beaumont to "Woah". He waited for me to come up beside him and then I said, "OK!". Beaumont pounced rather cat-like on the clump of grass in front quail as it flew away, I raised my gun, got ahead of the bird and fired. I'm not a very consisten shot, but this time I has made a good one...the bird fell hard to the ground right in front of Beaumont as he ran after it. He picked the bird up, and proudly walked back to me and dropped it. It was awesome to see Beaumont do what he was born to do. Beaumont has figured out why he was born...he now knew that he was on this earth to find birds. From that moment, Beaumont would not let us leave unless he was going. If we were in the house, he was by the truck, waiting to go out and find more birds. When we would leave, he wouldn't even wait for me to lower the tailgate to the deisel dodge pickup, he would leap into the back when he saw me coming. As we would drive down the farm roads to our hunting spots he would bark with excitement, begging us to stop so he could get out and do what he was made to do. It was so amazing to see him figure out why he is here.
I could go on to talk about what it means for a person to discover the reason why they were born, but I think I'll let my friend, Ryan tell you about that.