Article by Bob St. Pierre, reprinted
with permisssion.
Trammell and her family
The Naming of a Bird Dog
By Bob St.Pierre
If you've checked out this column before,
you've undoubtedly encountered a photo or mention of my
German shorthair pointer,
Trammell; or as my wife often refers to her, "my one
true love." To most, I end up repeating Trammell's name
multiple times before they can string the correct syllables
together, and they still look at me bemused. For baseball
fans and native Michiganders, it's an obvious homage to my
childhood hero, but I'll get to that in a moment. This -
in short version - is the story of Top Gun Trammell v. St.Pierre.
In
spring of 2007, my wife and I began to talk about kids
after two blissful years of marriage. We soon turned our
attention to kiddy training wheels in the form of a puppy.
Meredith had grown up in a Labrador family and I in a Brittany
family. Meredith wanted a larger dog, but one that didn't
shed very much. I, of course, needed a versatile pheasant
dog for my job with Pheasants Forever, but favored pointers
for ruffed grouse hunting at the sacrifice of my affinity
for a strong swimming duck retriever. The German shorthair
was our marital compromise.
Soon after we determined a breed,
my colleagues at Pheasants
Forever pointed me toward Top
Gun Kennels in Center City,
Iowa. One phone conversation with Top Gun's Steve Ries and
I had met a friend for life and the "father" of
our yet-to-be-born puppy. Meredith and I had both grown up
with female dogs, so that was a natural continuation of what
we had known. But should we name our new "first born
baby girl?"
Remember when I mentioned "marital compromise" earlier?
That's where picking a name for our pup comes in. You see,
my childhood idol was Detroit Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell.
For you diehard Twins fans, he was the Joe Mauer of Michigan
during the 1980's and '90's. He was the MVP of the Tigers'
World Series championship in 1984, a Tiger his entire career,
and a guy that epitomized the lunch box ballplayer of a blue
collar state. He was a good role model even for a ballplayer,
and a guy that deserves to be in the MLB Hall of Fame, but
was probably not flashy enough to earn the votes to get there
(see Bert Blyleven if you'd like a similar Twins example).
Anyway, "Trammell" sounded like a good name for
a son to me. But, I knew that would never fly with Meredith.
Yet I insisted that one day we'd have our boy "Trammell." The
panic in her eyes led her to one conclusion: we ended up
with a female shorthair by the name of my childhood idol.
Ah, the art of compromise.
We've begun talking about kids
again this summer . . . and we've also begun talking about
a second shorthair. I was
always a big Steve Yzerman fan growing up. Stevie Y spent
his entire career with the Detroit Red Wings and was their
longtime workhorse captain and Stanley Cup hero. "Yzerman." That's
got a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
Bob St. Pierre is the Director of
Marketing & Public
Relations for Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever's National
Headquarters. He's a lifelong bird hunter who chases upland
birds from Michigan to Montana each autumn behind "Trammell," his
German shorthair pointer. He can also be heard most Saturday
mornings on FAN Outdoors radio show from 6AM to 8AM on the
radio dial at AM1130.
