They must have been famished. Henri, from New Jersey, opened a four-pound package of hamburger and began sautéing the ground beef. I assumed that was the beginning of the evening meal preparation. I thought maybe spaghetti sauce or sloppy joes. Nope. The tasty burger was to be mixed with high protein dog food for his dog. He finished and Solon began cooking burger for his dog.

Northeast Chapter members and their Munsters.

Solon had perhaps the least luck of the entire crew. Most limited out on woodcock and grouse at least one of the three days. As Solon stated, "I had 18 flushes of grouse in two days of hunting, but I never did kill a grouse. One problem was we were hunting a little too close together and a number of really good looks I got at grouse, I couldn't shoot for safety reasons. Some of the grouse flushes came out of trees and some were only heard. I had 23 flushes of woodcock and did get some nice points and kills with them."

On day three, I wangled a short trip with Mark for just two hours. I had to leave before the hunt was over but, in that short period of time, we had 10 grouse and 12 woodcock flushes. I always seemed to be in the wrong place and only got a single shot at a timberdoodle– which I hit. The bird had a broken wing and ran. The dogs quickly picked it up and retrieved it.

Mark had many more shots than I did and he scored on two grouse and three woodcock, the daily Pennsylvania limit for each bird. As we walked back to my truck, I asked Mark where he got his dogs. He replied, "Well, Caja is out of a male from Germany and a female from Denmark. Bou is from Germany."

"You mean he was shipped to you from Germany?"

"No. I went to Germany to pick him up." Noting the incredulous look on my face, he added, "I wanted to see his parents. I wanted to meet the breeders and sit at their table. Have supper with them. Heck, 500 for plane tickets is a small investment for a good Munster."

Munsters. I can vouch for the breed and their owners.

For more information, check out the club's website: www.smallmunsterlander.org.

Don Knaus has written about hunting and fishing for years. He writes a weekly outdoor column for three newspapers and is the author of The Small Munsterlander, a history and training manual for the breed. His book Of Woods and Wild Things is a recent publication of short stories dealing with hunting, fishing and the outdoors. Both books may be ordered at his website, www.donknaus.com.