South Dakota
Letting go is difficult after going afield with a good dog • South Dakota Searchlight
Mary knew it was time before I did. Or maybe I should say she admitted it before I could.
Giving up on a dog, even when it’s pretty clearly time, can be difficult. And I needed some help from my wife, and from our vet, in recognizing the obvious.
So the time for Rosie, our 14-year-old springer spaniel, came one day last week, after a two-year decline that accelerated over the last six months and especially the last six or eight weeks.
Mary was home sick, so I sat alone with Rosie in an examination room at the animal clinic, talking to her and stroking her head and side as she drifted off, giving in peacefully to the sedative the vet had injected a few minutes earlier. Then I started to sob as I touched the call button summoning the vet and her assistant, who was pushing a cart that would take Rosie into the room where the final drug would be administered.
“I’m so sorry,” the vet said. “We’ll take good care of her.”
I left Rosie in their gentle hands and wept my way out of the exam room, down the hall, through the lobby and on to my pickup.
And when I settled in behind the wheel, I felt Rosie’s leash in the pocket of my jacket and acknowledged through my tears that a dog that had been such an important “is” in my life had become a “was.”
I do not mean to overstate the emotions of this. Obviously, the loss of a dog is not the same as the loss of a human being. But it is the loss of a life. A life that mattered.
For most of her 14 years with us, Rosie was a high-energy force of nature in our home and out across the wild lands of our state, leading me with the gift of her nose through mucky cattails and dense upland grasses and deep-woods aspen groves.
East River. West River. Missouri River country. Black Hills highlands. We explored them all, wet and dry, windy and calm, hot and cold and quite a bit in-between.
She loved best the kind of difficult-to-traverse coverts that Pennsylvania writer Charles Fergus called “thick and uncivil sorts of places,” and I got to know them better and love them more deeply by sharing them with her.
Oh, the things you can learn by going afield with a good dog. Magical, enduring things, about the outdoors, about the dog, about yourself.
We watched more sundowns together than I could count, usually when a bird hunt was done, we were both tired and fulfilled and often enjoying the added gift of coyote song. Rosie always raised her ears and cocked her head at the music, listening intently as if trying to decipher some canine-encrypted code.
The call of the wild? Of course. And she understood it much better than I did.
Oh, the things you can learn by going afield with a good dog. Magical, enduring things, about the outdoors, about the dog, about yourself.
But she wasn’t just a strong bird dog. She also was a talented backyard escape artist and unreconstructed garbage gut with a special affinity for kids’ sweat socks, the sweatier and dirtier the better.
I’ll skip the undignified details about how those socks, once swallowed, worked their way out, one way or the other. But Rosie processed a dozen or so over the years, with great effort but without requiring emergency room care.
She was a licker, not a fighter, that dog, known in our family and throughout our neighborhood for her sweet, outgoing personality. And she was especially fond and tolerant of the 19 grandchildren — now ranging in age from a gainfully employed college graduate to a toddler — who got to bask in her affection and be her pal.
I bought her from a kennel out in the James River breaks when she was eight weeks old and officially named her James River Rose. But I rarely called her anything but Rosie.
She was the most headstrong and challenging dog I’ve had to train, or to control in the field, but also the most athletic and relentless on bird scent. And despite the occasional adrenaline-driven indiscretion, at her core Rosie aimed to please.
She was six months old when she flushed and retrieved her first prairie grouse and a few weeks older when she did the same with her first rooster pheasant. And a year or two later, she led me to three ruffed grouse — a noteworthy limit on the first day I ever saw a Black Hills ruffy — in a disorderly gathering of willow and aspen and birch deep in a spring-fed hollow up off Tinton Road south of Spearfish.
She made a four-hour round-trip drive for a two-hour hunt worth it every time, even if all we trailed and flushed were a couple of hen pheasants. “No shot, girl,” I would say, and I praised her just as effusively as if we’d bagged three roosters.
She was puzzled whenever I missed a bird, ecstatic when I hit one and even in the most inhospitable of cover rarely missed a retrieve.
When we weren’t hunting pheasants or grouse, we were often up on the trails in the forest above our house in Rapid City, where Rosie maintained her nosy optimism, fervently believing — despite overwhelming odds to the contrary — that there was a pheasant or grouse waiting to be flushed around the next bend.
Never a slacker, she stayed blue-collared busy, whether snuffling her way through a Lyman County sorghum field or — in her younger days, at least — frantically chasing butterflies and even bird shadows back and forth across the backyard grass.
She was unremittingly upbeat and never failed to lift my spirits, even at the lowest of times.
Then came the decline, slow at first, much faster near the end. It was nothing out of the ordinary: an old dog with a bunch of old-dog ailments that finally reached her time.
And an old-dog lover who needed some help in admitting it.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
South Dakota
USDA to offer distaster assistance to South Dakota agriculture producers impacted by winter storms
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering financial and technical assistance to South Dakota farmers and livestock producers who may have been impacted by the recent winter storms.
“I encourage impacted producers to contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and learn more about program options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure, and livestock losses and damages.” said Richard Fordyce, Production and Conservation Under Secretary.
FSA’s Emergency Conservation Program and Emergency Forest Restoration Program can assist landowners with financial assistance to restore damaged land and conservation structures or forests.
“Our staff will work one-on-one with landowners to make assessments of the damages and develop methods that focus on effective recovery of the land.” said Jessica Michalski, Acting NRCS State Conservationist in South Dakota.
For more information about the disaster assistance program, click here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, left, and Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen unveil a plaque for retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams in the Hall of Honor at the Capitol in Pierre on March 25, 2026. (Photo by Meghan O’Brien/South Dakota Searchlight)
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) — There’s a new name in the South Dakota Hall of Honor at the state Capitol building.
One-hundred-year-old South Dakota native and retired U.S. Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams was celebrated at a Wednesday ceremony where a plaque honoring him was unveiled, although Williams did not attend.
“In spite of being outnumbered and facing incredible danger, Captain Williams engaged the enemy with courage and skill,” said Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden. “Our state has always had a strong tradition of service, and Captain Williams is the very best of that tradition.”
President Donald Trump awarded Williams the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, at the State of the Union address earlier this year. The medal honors actions by Williams that had been classified for decades.
“His story was secret for over 50 years, he didn’t even want to tell his wife, but the legend grew and grew,” Trump said during the speech in February. “But tonight, at 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves.”
On Nov. 18, 1952, over Korean coastal waters during the Korean War, then-Lt. Williams, from Wilmot, South Dakota, led three F9F Panthers against seven Soviet MiG-15s. He disabled three enemy jets and damaged a fourth.
The Soviet jets, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, were “superior to the F9F in almost every fashion.” The mission was the only direct overwater combat between U.S. Navy fighters and Soviet fighters during the Cold War.
Williams, one of 11 Medal of Honor recipients from South Dakota, now lives in California. The Hall of Honor at the South Dakota Capitol is located in the hallway that visitors enter immediately after going through security.
Red Flag Warnings are in effect across parts of the central High Plains and adjacent Rocky Mountain region on March 25, 2026, as meteorological conditions support critical fire weather across portions of Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, and nearby areas.
The National Weather Service (NWS) offices in Cheyenne, Riverton, North Platte, Rapid City, Billings, Missoula, Grand Junction, and Hastings issued multiple coordinated warnings covering numerous fire weather zones, with the most widespread period of concern from late morning through the evening hours. In several areas of Nebraska and Wyoming, warnings extend into March 26.
Sustained west to southwest winds of 25–65 km/h (15–40 mph), with gusts reaching 65–95 km/h (40–60 mph), are forecast across much of the region. The strongest winds are expected in parts of Wyoming and Montana, including mountainous and foothill areas, where gusts may locally reach 95 km/h (60 mph).
Relative humidity values are forecast to drop to between 10–20% during peak heating, with some locations reporting minimum values near 10–12%.
Temperatures are expected to rise well above seasonal averages, with highs reaching the upper 20s to low 30s °C (upper 70s to lower 90s °F) across parts of Nebraska, Wyoming, and surrounding regions. This combination of warm temperatures and dry fuels significantly enhances the potential for ignition and rapid fire spread.
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) identified a Critical Fire Weather area in its Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook for parts of central and eastern Wyoming into far western Nebraska and extreme southwest South Dakota, citing a strengthening surface pressure gradient and strong mid-level winds contributing to sustained surface winds of approximately 30–40 km/h (20–25 mph) and relative humidity near 15%.
The fire weather threat is forecast to shift southward in the coming days. The SPC Day 2 outlook highlights critical fire weather conditions across central New Mexico into the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and northwest Oklahoma, where low relative humidity and strengthening winds are expected to persist.
Additional hazards include the potential for isolated dry lightning, particularly across portions of western Nebraska and surrounding areas during the late afternoon and evening. Any lightning strikes in dry fuels may act as ignition sources, while associated outflow winds could lead to erratic fire behavior.
A cold front is forecast to move through the region late on March 25 into early March 26, bringing an abrupt wind shift from westerly to northerly directions with continued gusts of 30–70 km/h (20–45 mph). While cooler temperatures and slightly higher humidity may follow the frontal passage, the wind shift could exacerbate fire behavior in ongoing incidents.
Late March marks the beginning of the peak fire weather season across the central High Plains and adjacent regions, when dormant grasses and dry vegetation are highly receptive to ignition. Combined with frequent strong wind events and low humidity, this seasonal pattern increases the likelihood of fast-moving grassland fires.
Authorities advise against outdoor burning during the warning period, as even small ignition sources may lead to rapidly spreading fires under the prevailing conditions.
References:
1 Mar 25, 2026 Day 2 Fire Weather Outlook – NWS – March 25, 2026
2 Mar 25, 2026 Day 1 Fire Weather Outlook – NWS – March 25, 2026
3 Day 3-8 Fire Weather Outlook Issued on Mar 24, 2026 – NWS – March 24, 2026
A surprise resignation could open the door for an independent to win a Montana Senate seat
Metro Detroit weather forecast, March 26, 2026 — 11 p.m. Update
Man convicted in the deadly 2021 assault of a Thai grandfather in San Francisco avoids prison
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is confident about cost estimates to repair, rehab City Hall and insists the process has been transparent
Miami Gardens community rallies to help retired teacher rebuild after a fire tore through his home
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Indiana Members Credit Union announced as new anchor tenant at Bottleworks District
A surprise resignation could open the door for an independent to win a Montana Senate seat
Video: Savannah Guthrie Says She Believes Her Mother Was Taken for Ransom
Stefanik grills University of Michigan leader on lack of audit after string of Chinese national arrests
Photos: More than one million displaced by Israel’s evacuations in Lebanon
DHS shutdown live updates as Senate holds test vote on funding bill
-
Detroit, MI1 week agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Science1 week agoHow a Melting Glacier in Antarctica Could Affect Tens of Millions Around the Globe
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Science1 week agoI had to man up and get a mammogram
-
Sports5 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
New Mexico4 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Texas7 days agoHow to buy Houston vs. Texas A&M 2026 March Madness tickets
-
Tennessee3 days agoTennessee Police Investigating Alleged Assault Involving ‘Reacher’ Star Alan Ritchson