Letter to teachers and kids – April 5, 2007
 and his partner, little Bandit. |
Welcome to Missouri-Yellowstone Adopt-A-Fish. We hope you have some fun and learn some interesting things about fish over the next couple of months. I'm Mark, the old guy who does the Web work for Adopt-A-Fish, and I'll be sending you a letter each week along with the weekly update from the biologists tracking the fish and turtles.
In the past, I explained that I write these weekly letters with my fishing partner -- my black Labrador retriever named Smokey. I was training Smokey to be a fish-pointer. Other dogs might point pheasants or grouse, but I wanted Smokey to point fish for me, so I could catch them. But this year, both Smokey and I will have our hands full.
For the past year in our house we've had another dog, a smaller black Lab, that I got as sort of a hand-me-down from one of my sons. This almost-two-year-old Lab is named Bandit, though I sometimes call him "Ditto." While Smokey is getting to be an expert at sleeping in the boat......er, I mean, being a fish-pointer, Bandit is still a work in progress. But, he's really excited about it. In fact, he's excited about everything.
While Smokey tries to sleep, Bandit jumps up and down. Bandit runs in circles. Bandit chases his tail. He scratches behind his ear and thumps the floor with his foot. And he wants to GO! His whole attitude is "I don't care where we go. I don't care what we do. I wanna go, go, go, go and I wanna go NOW!"
So as we go from week to week, I'll write and let you know how big old Smokey (all 97 pounds of him) is doing teaching little Ditto (who has long legs but weighs in at 70 pounds) about being a fish pointer. So far, I think all Smokey has taught him is how to point to the lunch cooler and beg for doggie treats. So, Bandit still has a lot to learn.
As we go along, if you have any questions of the biologists or want to send an e-mail to me, or Smokey, or Bandit, just send it to walleyes@walleyesforever.com. We'll answer you as quickly as we can.
Talk to you next week.
-
Signed,
Mark, the old guy
Smokey, the fish pointer
Bandit, "I wanna go NOW!"