It is with great sorrow to say that our beloved Paxton has passed away.

She was literally my shadow for 15 ½ years (minus only a couple weeks when she couldn’t come with me). She was within 10 feet of me at all times. She’d follow me anywhere and everywhere no matter where I was going or how long I’d be. If I moved, she moved.

She never needed or wanted a lot of attention (she got it anyways). She was uninterested in people for the most part, but tolerant. She liked very few people. She was just laid back, but if she thought you posed a threat to her or her family you best watch out. She was pretty much just like me.

She is the reason I got back into hunting so much when I got out of the military. She taught me as much as I taught her. We figured out the birds together. She was a key factor in shaping Whipple into what she was. She had tons of drive and a hellacious nose. She’d bring you things that you didn’t know were there including extra birds and other people’s birds. She was never really crazy about retrieving anything besides birds, but every now and then you could get a ball or bumper out of her. She was just a hunter. She was mad at them birds, but she’d get after anything and everything including mice and rats, squirrels, rabbits, fish and minnows, surface bugs and/or whatever else she could find. She caught live, uninjured birds (blackbirds, dove, coot, rail) on many occasions both when hunting and not. She was always on the hunt.

She was great around the house and out in the field. She was an awesome dog and will be greatly missed. We had a lot of fun together.

She was a survivor, she cheated death many times: from sinking to the bottom of a swimming pool at 4 weeks old, to hanging herself off of a dock that was 12 feet tall, to being trampled by cows, as well as being ran over and various health issues including beating cancer.

You just can’t beat Father Time.


Rest easy, P.

We love you very much and miss you everyday.

Get them birds!


Water Walker’s Princess Darkness (Paxton)
11/30/2003 – 5/10/2019

Sorry to hear about you lab. I have one that sounds just like yours, they are some of the best dogs around.

The Power of the Dog

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passsion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find--it's your own affair--
But ... you've given your heart to a dog to tear.



When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone--wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.



We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long--
So why in--Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?


Rudyard Kipling

Condolences.

Real sorry for your loss... she was beautiful and sounds like an amazing buddy

Condolences. She was a goodun!

Sorry for the loss, but you have commemorated her with terrific photos.

Sorry for your loss, beautiful friend you had. Forrest

Tough stuff right there my man. Its been 2 years and I cant have a conversation aboht Bull.