Copper the Wonder Dog

Back when I was a young boy I often visited my Grandpa’s farm in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  In the summertime I got to spend several weeks up North, and my very best pal was my Grandpa’s dog, Copper the Wonder Dog.

Copper was a mixture of breeds, but mainly a Pointer and part English setter.  Pointers are very athletic and graceful, and were bred to be bird hunting dogs.  When they spot their quarry, a pointer will will freeze and “point” at the game (like in the picture above), so the hunter will know where to look when the game is flushed.  Pointers can be mischievous, and they don’t think they are dogs.  They think they are people, and just part of the family.

Copper could run fast, and I mean really fast.  He liked to chase rabbits when we went out into the woods, and he would occasionally catch one (which was no small feat).  He liked to chase cars, but only certain cars that he didn’t like.  When he saw or heard a car he didn’t like coming down the road, Copper would race down the driveway, downhill, reaching full speed just as the car was passing the driveway.  The cars would always drive away down the road, so Copper probably figured he was responsible for scaring the bad cars away.

Sometimes I would get Copper to chase after me by suddenly running around the corner of the house out of sight.  Copper couldn’t resist and just had to chase me.  I would hide around the corner to surprise Copper, waiting for him to come racing around the corner at top speed, and then flip him over making him totally wipe out.  That generally prompted a spirited wrestling match, but Copper would always give up when I scratched his belly.

I liked to sleep in, but sometimes someone would let Copper into the house.  I would hear someone open the stairway door, and then the sound of claws scratching on the wood steps as Copper raced up the stairs.  Copper would leap into bed and land right on top of me, and if I wasn’t quick enough in pulling the covers over my head, I would get a cold, wet dog muzzle right in my ear.  There was just no going back to sleep after that.

One time some relatives brought their puppy named “King” over to my Grandpa’s house.  Copper didn’t like having another dog around competing for everyone’s attention, so he started showing off by racing around the house at top speed.  King was very short and couldn’t run very fast, but he chased after Copper as best as he could.  Every time that Copper passed King as they ran round and round the house, Copper purposely ran right over top that little dog, sending King tumbling end over end.  It was hilarious!

Copper liked to eat sweet corn on the cob.  Seriously!  It didn’t matter if it was raw in the field, or roasted during a cookout.  Copper would lay down, put his cob of corn between his paws, and gnaw the kernels right off the cob.  Copper would follow us out into the cornfield, and sometimes when the wind blew and rustled the corn just right, he would get scared and start whimpering.  It reminded him of a previous bad experience.

One night Copper charged out into the cornfield intending to run off some raccoons stealing corn.  Raccoons are mean and vicious fighters for their size, with a growl that sounds like pure evil  There was a gang of raccoons out there, & they gave Copper the worst thrashing he’d ever received.  Poor Copper never forgot, & occasionally the sound of the wind rustling the corn leaves scared him into thinking that gang of raccoons was coming back to get him.

Old Copper was just a great dog to have around when I was a boy on vacation up North.  We ran, we wrestled, we hiked in the woods, we hunted, we ate corn, and we chased cars (well, he chased cars).  We sat together on the porch steps, looking down the driveway, across the road, into the field beyond, and just watched the summer days go by.

(Picture of a Pointer from Wikimedia)

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