My friend, my fishing buddy and my sidekick: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

My Grandfather died when I was 11. I only met him once, when we all went to Oregon. He got kind of upset when I ran a garter snake thru his cider press... But when he died he gave me the best present anyone ever has.

Mom and Dad came home from Oregon with a bunch of stuff in the station wagon, and a Puppy. Not just any puppy either, he had yellow hair, and eyes, and nose, everything on him was Yellow.. so you guessed it, his name was Yeller. I would learn much later on in life that he was a Chesepeake retriever.

He was about the biggest pup I had ever seen, HUGE feet and this big slobbery grin, he was great. When he got out of the car and jumped up and put his paws on my shoulders and licked my face.. I was in heaven .. a dog!

Now having 2 brothers and 3 sisters there was always a catfight as to who got what, but not with Yeller, the first thing he did was manage to knock two of my sisters and my younger brother off the porch with his Tail of Iron.. From the first day he was mine.

One thing I never could get him to do was to sleep in a doghouse, he would just make a dirt bed by the front door and there he would be.. Once when it snowed I couldn't see him, so I hollered and this pile of snow stood up and shook

I never really tried to find things for him to do, he just kind of did things.. of course when I figured out what they were I sort of helped him. He came to us in September and the first thing I discovered was that he loved water, and he could fish! He followed me down to the riverbank and I spotted a salmon heading up the riffles and chucked a rock at it.
Of course, the fish did what they all do, took off up the shallows with water flying, when suddenly this yellow streak went flashing past. He ran that Salmon down and retrieved it for me.. Once I got my jaw shut I packed it up to Mom and she had a fit! Then she cooked it for dinner.

I can still see him pulling that fish along, it was so big he couldn't lift it with his neck so he kind of went 4 steps, then wrenched it forward, then took 4 more steps.

I discovered that he loved to retrieve things, the bigger the better! I got up to picking up beaver logs so big I couldn't hardly throw them, and he would go get them.
Having got worn out one day I was trying to get him to stop, so I picked up this huge waterlogged beaverstick and threw it out into the swimming hole where everyone was , and it promptly sank! Then Yeller started trying to retrieve it! He would swim up to it and then try to swim down.. Mom took some pictures of him with just the tip of his tail sticking out of the water.

Then we discovered we could get him to dig us caves in the riverbank! All we had to do was sic him on a spot and he would start digging and snuffling in it trying to find what we were after and pretty soon he would be all the way inside this hole he had dug.I remeber this didn't last too long, since one night dad was trying to catch some fish and managed to step into one of the caves we had dug..

I only saw him get full once, Dad was butchering a deer and kept throwing him pieces, and pretty soon he would try to eat a piece of meat, then not be able to swallow it.. he would look at it on the ground then try again.. He would eat anything.. once Dad was gutting this buck and had just cut out the half full piss bag, and just for a joke he threw it up in the air.. Yeller caught it before it hit the ground... But he didn't eat it

The funniest thing I ever saw him eat was when Mom was picking blackberries to trade to Dr. Mcnamara for us kids mediacal bills. Mom made the mistake of feeding him some blackberries once, and when he figured out where they came from he started eating them like an old bear, he would just chomp his way down the vine. She used to just scream at him when he would get in front of her.. those wild blackberries were kind of hard to find.

He found other things to do when we took him out with us, like the time Mom and Lil were picking cones, and put the babies down on one side of a tree, and Yeller found a skunk on the other! I still remember the look on Dad's face when he picked up LeHi that night

When I turned 16 he and I would take off from the house with my singleshot .22 and walk up into WeyerHauser above Cougar Mountain Camp looking for grouse, sometimes we found a lot more than we were looking for. Like once he found 2 porcupines...When we took him to the vet because there were so many quills the vet asked if the porcupines were naked now

He even helped me get my first deer.. not a legal one, but we got it.. I was walking down the weyerhauser road when just across this little creek I see a spike buck looking at me over his shoulder. I remember I had 3 shells, 2 long rifle and a short.. of course I missed with the first two shots and settled down and hit him in the butt with my last shot, the short. When he ran off Yeller finally saw him and gave chase.. Sometimes when Yeller took off after a deer it was hours before he quit. This time he started kind of howling after about 10 minutes, and would not come back no matter how hard I hollered..I went to find him and he was standing next to this little beaver pond and would not leave... looking around I finally noticed a little patch of fur floating in the pond.. poking it with a stick I discovered it was the buck, drowned with his right front leg broke.. I found the .22 slug in between his rear quarters, I must have hit him square in the poopchute .

I was turning 18 finally, and looking in the paper I noticed my Lottery number for the draft was 22.. so Yeller and I had to split up.. I still remember the last time I saw him, standing on the front porch watching me and my brother drive away heading to the airport for me to go join the Army at Ft Leanardwood, Missourri.

I came back from Vietnam 18 months later, and when I walked down main street in Yelm nothing looked the same, and I didn't know anyone any more. I got home and when we stopped the car there was no Yeller waiting.. I asked and Dad just said he died about 6 months ago, and no one would tell me what had happened. My buddy was gone, and I still miss him.

I finally found out what happened to him about 5 years later. One of the Demerit's dogs was in heat, and Richard shot him when he came around after the bitch. They were afraid to tell me about it because they were afraid I would kill Richard.

I tried and tried to find a dog who could be for my son what Yeller was to me, I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Yeller, you were my best bud and my companion. May you forever rest in peace.

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Grant

Yes dear, I know buying them is cheaper....

Edited by Buzzy (08/17/03 06:55 PM)