Happy dog with a goose

Today we noticed three vultures circling over a cluster of trees across the valley. Suspecting that they were feasting on prey, we began to hike in their direction.

As we neared, we noticed feathers covered the grass in several locations. Then, Moose located the carcass of the beautiful, big goose.

During the winters, we do a lot of duck and goose hunting. Moose always goes with us and he is a great hunting companion. He has no problem retrieving ducks, but he hasn't had the chance to retrieve many geese. 

We have always looked forward to doing more goose hunting with Moose. Because geese are so large, heavy, and aggressive, it takes a special dog to retrieve one. Moose is that dog. With his confidence, big size and broad stature, he is more than capable of being a dream goose hunting dog.

Normally, we would not let Moose explore a bloody, dead bird. A rule-abiding dog owner and hunter know that letting dogs get too intimate with dead birds causes problems on a hunting trip because, if you give a dog a taste of what they are supposed to retrieve, they may not want to return it. Instead, they may just want to eat it.  

We ditched our goals of being rule abiding dog owners and hunters. We knew that the goose was fresh and healthy, and because we want to spoil Moose to death, we let him do whatever he wanted with it: sniff, smell, taste, paw, eat, and chew. 

Even though his life will be short, our goal is to give Moose the fullest life possible. This adventure with Moose and his goose are a small part of making that happen.