A Tribute to Troubles

I read Kyle Wilkinson’s recent article about his friend’s Black Lab, Drake, and his first retrieve on his first duck hunt at age six months. That story triggered some fond memories. I have a similar story about my first Black Lab, Troubles, from years ago. His first ever retrieval, perfectly done, came on the very first game bird, a spruce grouse, he had ever seen.

We were in Maine where I was attending graduate school and Troubles was only five months old. I tell that story and much more in the following three-part series. This narrative, titled “A Tribute to Troubles,” is one chapter from my draft unpublished book of hunting and fishing stories. I hope you enjoy it.

A Tribute to Troubles

I had just graduated from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and found myself on the other side of the country, attending graduate school in Maine. I was in my early twenties, single, and literally a “stranger in a strange land.” My office mate, Carl, an avid duck hunter originally from Missouri, took pity on me and decided I needed a friend.

One mid-June day at the office, Carl asked me to swing by his house on my way home. He said he and Ann, his wife, had something for me. They owned a female Black Lab who’d had a litter of pups about four weeks before and they wanted me to see one of the puppies. I was intrigued by the idea of having my own dog, a new experience for me.

My dad had owned hunting dogs at various times when I was a kid. One of my daily chores involved feeding and watering the animals, but they were my dad’s dogs, not mine. The dogs and I both knew who the boss was. This puppy would be a first for me.

That evening, at Carl’s house, it was love at first sight. The puppy Carl and Ann wanted me to see was a runty, little chocolate-brown male, barely able to walk. His ribs were flattened from lying on his stomach. Carl cautioned me that if the ribs didn’t straighten out in a week or two, he would have the dog “put down.” He said the mother had tried to kill the puppy at birth because her instinct told her that he would not survive. Carl and Ann had taken care of the baby for the first few days of his life until the mother would accept him back into the litter. I silently prayed that things would work out.

The next two weeks seemed to drag by as I waited and hoped Carl would tell me to come pick up the puppy. Finally, the day arrived when Carl said the puppy’s ribs had assumed a more normal shape, the weaning process was complete and that I should come get him. I was thrilled.

When I arrived at Carl and Ann’s, the puppy was running and frolicking around the nursery area with the few remaining littermates still present. Carl gave me the necessary registration paperwork and told me to list his color as black, not chocolate, because he would lose the brown puppy coat as he got older. When I asked Carl how much he wanted for the dog, he said to use the money to register the puppy and enjoy my new friend.

I had been thinking about what name to give this new little guy on the AKC registration paperwork. Considering his shaky start in life, I decided that Troubles Igott, or Troubles for short, was perfect.

My life had suddenly and significantly changed. I now had someone else to consider in my daily activities who was dependent on me for everything. My carefree days of being “footloose and fancy free” had suddenly assumed more responsibility.

That summer, Troubles and I went through the housebreaking process, which items of my stuff were chewable, and which weren’t, and all those other early adjustments to our lives with an enthusiasm I think we both enjoyed. To be honest, we taught each other equally during this period because we were both new to this life-changing experience.

Troubles went everywhere I did, usually sharing my lunch or dinner and taking naps on the truck seat. We had very quickly become, as my wife several years later coined the phrase, “bestest buddies.” For instance, after one night of minus 30-degree temperatures and no heat in the cabin that first winter, we both started sleeping together in the same bed for warmth….