[fabsroman]

Yeah, you pretty much were "pulling" my leg about the incident with my dog. Any other time I might find it funny, but when my dog almost dies, it ain't too hilarious. On other occassions on this board you have pissed people off with your "leg pulling" and I warned you about it before. Even calmed some of the guys down in the Mods Forum about the incidents. Never thought it would happen to me. About the only thing that you could have done that would have been worse is if my dad had been in a precarious position and you made fun of that.

To insinuate/pull my leg about there being a $100 reward band on that goose was pretty low, especially when I had the goose in my hand when I was getting my dog. I know there wasn't any bands on that bird, but you and the "guilty" party probably got a good laugh out of that one too. I found no need to bring the goose back out with me since it was the last day of the season and my hunt was already ruined, so I left it. You can bet that it would have come with me if it had a reward band on it.

As far as the Howard County property is concerned, I hadn't hunted that property until this year. I told the "guilty" party that on the phone, but I guess my word isn't worth much. I just never had the time to go up there and see if there was anything around and I barely even had time to hunt. Didn't really have the time this year either, and ended up running into these new friends one morning when my dad and I just decided to go up there and try our luck toward the end of the season. Check my posts and you will see that. I complained plenty about not being able to hunt the past two years. Anyway, there were 4 other guys up there setting up and they were more than happy to hunt with us. They called me a couple of times after that to hunt with them.

Anyway, I am getting side tracked. How does representing the "guilty" party in Court on two separate occassions qualify for favors? How about writing a legal letter on another occassion. How about giving him advice on his pending divorce and the sale of his liquor store and accompanying him on another occassion after a hunt so he could apply for a restraining order for his wife. At $125 an hour I could have paid for plenty of hunts, but I didn't charge him a dime. Oh yeah, I even helped him shingle the roof to his house, and I believe you were there for that one. There were several other calls for advice (e.g., writing off his boat as a business expense), but I didn't keep track of everything. I did that stuff because I thought we were buddies, but I guess we weren't. Before the dog/ice incident, I asked him to provide me with liquor at his cost for my brother's 30th birthday party, which might have cost $200 retail. He gave it to me for free and that was the last time I saw or spoke to him until I spoke to him about hunting that pond. The landowner even IM'ed me and told me we could hunt it at the same time he told the "guilty" party, but I wanted to see what would happen. Never got a call from the "guilty" party about hunting it, and kind of figured I never would. Of course, the landowner told me the "guilty" party was clobbering the geese there, so I decided I might as well hunt the last day, and I left him a voice mail to see if it would be okay. He left me a voice mail stating that he had several people coming and that he would hunt another farm so that we could hunt that pond. I thought he was doing me a favor until I saw the goose at day break. While we are on the favors issue, let's not leave out the SBE offer that I passed on to you, where you got a pretty nice, barely used, SBE for $850 when it was worth just slightly less than $1,200. I could have bought the gun and sold it for a profit, but I didn't.

When I first represented the "guilty" party on the first case, he was going through the divorce with his wife and I ran into her when we got back from Court. She asked me if he had promised me a buck or some other hunt for representation in Court, and I thought she was full of it. However, once all the legal representation and other questions were done and I had asked for the liquor, which you were present for, I never got a single call, invited on a hunt, or anything else.

I have since learned not to mix business with friendship. Life is full of learning experiences. I have also learned that it is better to have friends that laugh with me instead of at me. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Seems like I have a decent amount of shame to deal with.

Both you and the "guilty" party knew that I bought a townhouse and got engaged within 2 months of one another and that I was remodeling the townhouse and planning a wedding in the same year. That should have been a good enough clue that I wasn't hunting much. The only day I went deer hunting was opening day for firearms, barely did any dove hunting, and only went goose hunting twice that year, one being the ice incident. Read through all my posts from back then and you will see. As far as hunting is concerned, I am willing to do whatever work needs to be done, I usually get to the field on time and put in the work, I usually help at the end of the day, and I am always willing to provide my equipment for use. Whether or not I have time to scout birds depends on my schedule. For a little over a year, my schedule was way too busy for me to do a lot of hunting, much less a lot of scouting.

As far as my above post being uncalled for, it is less uncalled for than your making fun of me on this board for the incident with my dog. Other than your most recent post about the choke tube on the SBE, almost all of your posts have either been to show pics of bucks and truck loads of geese, or to whine about your brother's antlers being taken.

I might be the dumb city boy that got duped into hunting a pond with a dead goose belly up on it and then sending my dog to fetch it up, only to end up in the water myself, which is what that thread of yours was about because I know you already knew the story before even asking. Heck, the "guilty" party knew about me shooting a buck in those parts within 15 minutes of me shooting it. I am sure he knew about me plunging into the ice to get my dog since the landowner came out and spoke to my dad about it and the landowner probably saw the "guilty" party later that night when the "guilty" party retrieved the "banded" goose that had both a location band and a $100 reward band. Above you say you are an honest person, but the bird having a band is definitely not true. So, does that not count as a lie because it might have been hearsay from the "guilty" party? Does it not matter because it was merely said in jest? Did you actually see two bands on that bird? Were you at the pond when it was retrieved?

Anyway, when I make fun of the country boy that hangs something valuable on a tree and expects to find it hanging there the next day, I am a mean person and it is uncalled for. Funny how things are when the shoe is on the other foot. Doesn't feel good does it. Would you expect to leave a shotgun outside and then be surprised that it is gone the next morning? Kind of like depending on "buddies" that don't even trust me when I tell them that I haven't been hunting. Then again, my closer friends would have known how busy I was and that I didn't have time to hunt.

I'm not mad about you for the actual incident, I am pissed about your conduct on this board which was done in an attempt to get a good chuckle out of it at my expense. Not once did you or the "guilty" party ask if Nitro and I were okay. Didn't even get a call from the "guilty" party, which reminds me that I fried my $250 cell phone getting my dog. I am sure that you would laugh with me if you broke your bow or something else of value and I was making fun of you, or would you be slightly pissed? Sit back and think about how it feels to be in my place. Then, you might just understand why this thread irks me. Maybe the "thief" just took the antlers to get a laugh out of it. Not too funny was it?