The Adams Family: October 2009

We had an eventful past week, especially the weekend. Saturday morning we decided we would go out and jump shoot some ducks on the grassland ponds. Geno and I would take turns sneaking up on the ducks and the other would stay with Hadley in the truck. The first pond we went to, Geno got 3 ducks - 2 teal and a gadwall. The next pond I went out and army crawled my way down to the pond and ended up getting 2 teal. And Geno got another duck on the next pond. On this day (Saturday) it was the opening day for the resident only pheasant season - which lasts 3 days and you can hunt only public land and you can't start hunting until noon. We were out that morning hunting ducks in the grasslands and it was about noon so Geno decided to walk through a field to try and get some pheasants while I was feeding Hadley. He walked the field and when he got back to the truck he said to hurry and get Hadley in the car seat because Tar was acting funny, and that he got stuck by either barb wire.....or possibly a RATTLESNAKE!!! -- his lip was bleeding and it was puffy. Geno never saw a rattlesnake, but Tar did jump back when he was near the barbwire like he got pricked by it or bitten - he was about 15 yards away from Tar when it happened. Well....it ended up being a rattlesnake of all things, which was SO hard to believe because it was probably 29 degrees when he got bit and the snake should have been lethargic b/c it was so cold - and the low from the previous night was like 17 degrees. We called the vet on the way back to town and she was already at the clinic for another emergency. When we got to the clinic 25 minutes later....Tar's lip and face was swollen up like a baseball and he was very lethargic and not moving around a whole lot. While at the vet, she gave him a steriod shot and some antibiotic and started him on an IV for fluids. THANKFULLY we had previously given Tar a rattlesnake vaccination while at his vet checkups because if we hadn't done so, Tar might not be the same dog he is now due to the snakebite. He had to stay overnight at the vet for the IV and to be watched. Before we left him there he was vomiting and the vet gave him a shot to prevent it. We were able to pick him up the next morning and the vet did said that it was a good thing he had the vaccination b/c he could have been worse off with how much he was vomiting and whatnot. There was a dog that had gotten bitten 2 wks prior and it didn't have the vaccination and had stopped breathing 20 minutes before they got to the vet. That dog is still living but has some brain damage and she said after 2 weeks, it finally started acting like it wanted to play etc. SO the moral of the story...if you live where your dog could get bitten - get the vaccination -- it probably saved Tar's life!!!!!

On Sunday, our friends Brian and Steph Graeb came out from Brookings for pheasant hunting. We got a babysitter for Hadley so we were all able to go and enjoy a day of hunting. We did lots of walking and ended up with 6 pheasants and one prairie chicken between the 4 of us. Most of the pheasants were still in the crops, but the last field we hunted we did really well on and it saved the day!! I have a few pics from that, but when I get more from Brian and Steph I'll post more.