TINA WAS in perfect health. Well, almost perfect. At age 11, my orange-and-white English setter had the beginnings of cataracts, visible as milky-blue reflections, in both eyes. I’d also noticed that she sometimes bumped into things—the doorway to her kennel, for example—in low light. My veterinarian, a setter man himself, assured me that this was not uncommon in dogs her age, and that while the condition wasn’t reversible without expensive surgery, it hadn’t progressed to the point that it would affect her in the field.
I loaded Tina into the truck, pointed it west, and hit the road for our September destination: the Badlands of North Dakota.