What made this Labrador different from other dogs I've owned was not good looks or sweeping skills or exceptional style but intelligence and, especially, extraordinary allegiance that commonly took away my breath. About midway through our second season together, I began to understand that Buck's greatest talent was his drive to always be where I was, to carry out what I asked of him, and, in some cases, to anticipate what he thought I wanted.

At a point early in our relationship he had decided that I was his reason for existence. And he never deviated from that decision.

Even as a pup, he was content to simply be with me and was tolerant of all that went on around him if I was a part of it. He would patiently watch me, attuned to my movements and the tone of my voice. He would lie stretched by my chair, eyes cocked upward, waiting for the last drink to be finished or the last friend to leave. Only when I was safely tucked away would he relax and take his own rest. And all he asked for such full-time fealty was to be there and to receive a scratch and a smile now and then.

But there was more to our involvement than occasional kind words. After his arrival in my life, it did not take long for us to become extensions of each other, at least as much as man and dog can achieve that state.

I've owned dogs with wider-ranging skills than Buck or that were superior to him at individual tasks, but for all-around, hunt-anything-at-anytime competence and for day-in, day-out performance, this singular Lab topped any other gun dog I've owned. For a good stretch of my life, I hunted everything feathered and furred that was legal and marginally available, over a sizable piece of diverse terrain.

During our benchmark years together Buck found, flushed, tracked, and fetched an array of animals that was more a measure of his unqualified devotion to my needs than of my common sense and judgment.

As a gun dog, a companion, and, yes, even a friend, he remains unmatched both in fact and in my heart.

Although the seasons have long since written that life-chapter's final page, my mind's eye can review its details and images at any time, beginning with a savvy breeder holding up a pup and saying, "I think this is the one you should take."