Gift carved for Dad's 76th Birthday

My Dad turned 76 this past September and as is now getting to be tradition, I carve a gift for him.

One of my fondest memories of Dad is his love of the outdoors.  Dad is a fisherman, hunter, golfer and anything else he can do outside the confines of anything man made.

Dad taught myself and my 5 brothers how to hunt pheasants from the farm-fields of Mid Michigan.  Dad first met Mom as a young man asking permission from a man, who ended up to be his father-in-law,  permission to hunt pheasants with his buddies on the old man's property.

Dad's bird-dog of choice is Brittany Spaniels.  Now Dad has hunted over many brittany's in his day, my favorite was "Sal".  "Sal" was short for "Salvatore's something something" on his registered papers.  Could never remember Sal's full name.  Sale was unusual in that Dad primarily hunted and trained female brittanys.

Sal was a barrel chested stud of a male that was regal looking as hell, a darn good hunter, but also sweet as could be when he was not "on the hunt".

This carving is of an old man rewarding a young pup, with a pheasant in his mouth, with a pat on the head for a job well done.

I have many fond memories of hunting and hunting dogs and I wanted thank Dad for that with this carving.

The figures are carved out of Butternut and the base is of oak.  I applied Tung Oil and sealed with satin Deft polyeurethane finish.