The Great White Hunters of Toledo Avenue – or – The Exciting Adventures of Dino, Stevie and Billy
This story took place in the murky past, sometime in the fall of 1966. My cousin Stevie, who was just recovered from having a good part of his right leg, I believe, amputated due to the discovery of bone cancer in that leg. For some this would have ended any type of strenuous activities or wild outdoor endeavors. This was not the case with Stevie, who seemed to accept this all as a challenge to see what he could do next. At the time of this adventure he was about 17 and I was just about one year prior to spending the next four years or so having my own adventures with Uncle Sam.
Stevie lived across the street from us in the upper level of a a large two story home. He lived there with his mother, his sister Jeanie, his younger brother Robert and older brother Teddy. Stevie liked to go fishing and hunting, and since it was fall he thought we should be getting out to the woods for some shooting. He had somehow set up a little shooting range in the attic of their house. He took me up there to show off his little set up. He had a mattress against the far wall with a sheet over it and some targets affixed to the mattress. He pulled out his .22 rifle and opened up a box of .22 short shells. So we were able to plug away at the target without worrying about any of the rounds going through the wall and possibly to the house behind. This was one of the preps for our next hanging trip. We had previously gone pheasant hunting with shotguns out at my father’s friend Johnny’s farm in Romulus. We traipsed around through the cornfields with nothing to show for our efforts.
He decided we might go out for smaller game this time. So one Saturday morning in October, we gathered the rifle and a shotgun, packed up some snacks and some pop and loaded up the only available vehicle, which was his sister’s Ford Falcon. As we prepared to depart, Stevie decided that the trip would not be successful unless we had a hunting dog with us. So we contemplated on where this hunting dog would be available on this short notice. It then came to us in an inspirational flash. My younger sister Barbara had recently acquired a dog. It was given to her by our Uncle Bill when he moved from Cleveland to California. I knew that Barbara was already out of the house that morning, off to play with some of her friends or going to the movies. We decided that she would have approved of our idea, so we went over to my house to pick up, Dino. Now Dino was not exactly a hunting dog, per se, but some of the dogs in his general family or breed were known for hunting. Standard Poodles had been hunting dogs in Europe. Dino was just a toy poodle, but we hoped that some of the hunting blood had flowed in his direction somewhere back in his past.
Now our group was complete and we set off on our way to the woods around Kensington Park. After some driving around the back roads of Kensington, we found a suitable dirt roads and discovered a place with no other cars or trucks in the vicinity. Here Stevie decided would be the spot where we would find out game and happy hunting ground. Today we would be hunting squirrel and rabbits. Stevie took the rifle and I was given the 12 gauge shotgun. I felt that this might be a touch heavier firepower for the squirrels, but this was what we had available that day. Stevie set off in one direction with Dino and I went the other way with the hope that we could send some creatures toward each other, and at the same time be sure that we did not plug the other or Dino. Speaking of Dino, he took to the woods with great alacrity. I am sure that the little guy had never had the opportunity in his life to romp through the woods, over hill and dale, and brush and bushes. Maybe there was some hunting blood in him after all.
Well we were out in those woods for a couple hours trying to become big or small game hunters. I eventually blew up two squirrels, one of whom had to be finally dispatched with the knife that Stevie had leant me. When I met up with Stevie, he had a squirrel and a rabbit. Not a great day of hunting, but it was something. Dino came scampering back to us, sweating and out of breath, but seemed to have had a nice time enjoying the sunny, fall day in the woods. We got back into the car and turned on the radio to listen to our tunes, either on CKLW of WKNR, I seem to remember Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and drank our pop and ate our sandwiches. We gave Dino some water and part of our food. All in all, it was a good day for the three of us and worth the long trip out there.
When we got back to our neighborhood, we decided to go over to see Mr. Patey who was the father of a couple guys that we grew up with on McKinstry, Johnny and Foster. Mr. Patey was originally from Tennessee and we were aware that he appreciated squirrels and rabbits of a deceased nature. Stevie and I were hunters and not squirrel skinners, so we gave our hunting results to Mr. Patey, who thanked us and began to skin them before we left his basement. Then we returned to Stevie’s house to clean out the car. He took the guns and stuff back upstairs to his house and it was my duty to return Dino to his mistress, Barbara. Good old Dino, might have been a little winded from his active day, and I also noticed at that time, that he seemed to be pretty well coated with pickers, burrs and some associated floral and fauna from the woods. It didn’t see to discomfort him, so I didn’t think too much about it. When I entered the house, Barbara was in an emotional state, she was worried what we might have done to her little dog. I told her that he had a lot of fun that day. When she finally got a better look at the dog, she might have over re-acted a little, more in the nature of Lassie Come Home and Rin-Tin-Tin after he was shot by the bad guys. She might have won a best supporting actress award, if the right people had been looking. She saw all the bits of debris that had accumulated on his fur and thought that he would be scarred for life. She grabbed him in her loving arms and took him back to the utility tub to clean him and maybe de-burr him. Dino looked over her shoulder at me and I believe that he was wondering what the heck was going on now. He seemed to be saying; “save me, or take me back”. He had just spent a day having the most fun in his dog life to that point, and probably would never repeat again. We had given him a great adventure, and Barbara, over wrought as she was, would be doing all in her power to wipe that memory from his little mind. I think it was a great day for Dino, Stevie and Billy. If we had owned a video recorder, the whole day might have eventually shown up on Michigan Outdoors with Mort Neff.
Stay tuned for a later adventure, which happened in the summer of 1967 starring Teddy, Stevie and Billy.
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