My Best Season
The author, Tony Rzadski with a limit of roosters taken with his son Joey on public land. Most valuable players Hazel, left, and Huck pose for the photo after the hunt.
By Tony Rzadski
The other day while I was walking my dogs it occurred to me that this is my fiftieth season. I mean the fiftieth season of pheasant hunting for me. As I hobbled along, I began to reminisce about years and seasons gone by. I vividly recalled that first hunt and the first pheasant falling many years ago that began a lifelong love affair for me with the outdoors and hunting.
Some of the best seasons I had began with a new puppy. I am now living with ‘puppies’ number four & five, Huck & Hazel, litter mates that have been loyally chasing roosters for now their eleventh season. They are both great dogs and their dual management of pheasants out in the field is something special to observe. But to be honest, Buckie, my first Labrador Retriever took my breath away in her first season and the fourteen more that followed. She was a fifty pound wild bundle of uncontrollable pheasant seeking fury that took five years to temper and tame into the finest hunting dog I have shared a field with...that first season with her was truly memorable.
My oldest son’s first hunt happened in South Dakota. At the time of that trip I would usually spend a week in October out there with my friends chasing roosters. This was the year Mike was old enough to shoot, so I waited for Thanksgiving break and Mike and I had 1100 acres of prime hunting ground all to ourselves. Mike got his first bird and another generation and hunting partner would join me for a lifetime. A couple of years later, Joey my second son joined Mike and I in South Dakota to also become part of the tradition. These seasons were great to me and I am very proud that I can enjoy the rest of my life afield with one or both of my best hunting partners.
Four years ago Mike and Joey’s circle of life came closer. Jonathon, Mike’s son at less than a year old joined us in the field on opening day snuggly wrapped in his mother’s papoose. Thanks Sarah! That was pretty cool. Three years ago Joey’s newly found son of eight years (through marriage) joined us on opening day. We were 200yds away from a cackling rooster that Huck & Hazel eventually surrounded for one of their superb flushes. The bird decided to fly right back towards us and after Joey pulled the trigger it landed right at Andres’ feet. That brought a giant grin to my face and one excited grandson too.
But right now it is two days before Thanksgiving and the middle of the hunting season in Wisconsin…and I am grounded. This past spring after several tests with my urologist, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. My doctor suggested, and we ultimately decided to perform robotic prostatectomy surgery. This is a highly successful procedure that should serve me the best given my age and health. This decision was made last April and he said I should get this done within 3-6 months. “Six months, I thought, great I can still work (I am semi-retired) then recover when I get laid off in November.” There is the catch…laid off in November and going through surgery meant…no pheasant hunting. I must admit that I am writing this with an aching gut and anxious legs idled by doctor’s orders, but now that I have had time to think about it…this has been my best season.
Surgery was on Veteran’s Day and before surgery my doctor came into my room to say whatever doctors say at that time. I don’t know or remember what he said because I had something far greater on my mind…I grabbed his hands and asked him to pray with me and I then asked God to guide him in this procedure and rid my body of this deadly disease. My doctor responded by looking me right in the eyes and most assuredly stated that ‘I would be cancer free in two hours.’ Wow.
I was sent home to slowly recover the following afternoon. Two days later my doctor called me. I instantly recognized his voice as he shared with me the great news----he had got it all! I don’t know how anyone else feels or reacts to news like that…I cried on the phone. After sixty-four years I have been given a golden opportunity to possibly live several more decades. The miracle of modern medicine is taken so for granted these days that without its so many marvelous outcomes…many people would not be with us right now…and my future would be grimly cut short.
Yes before surgery this season Huck & Hazel, Mike, Joey and Jonathon all joined me at times to do some bird hunting. We have one pheasant down out of two flushed for the season…that is some pretty slim pickings and hardly memorable. Huck worked his magic flushing both of those birds even though his typical undaunted duty, instinct and ability had been greatly curtailed. It is too bad and sorrowfully hurtful that I lost him to the Lyme’s disease that he had been battling since late summer…two days after Thanksgiving. But, to know that God has blessed me with these wonderful memories and gift of years to come….I will count this one as my best season.