Sharp Shootin' Cowboy Read Online Free PDF Page B

perfectly well without killing animals for food.”
    â€œWhy doesn’t that surprise me,” he mumbled.
    â€œMind if I turn on some music?” she asked.
    â€œGo ahead. Anything but that hip-hop crap is fine with me.”
    She looked up from the tuner. “You don’t like it?”
    â€œNope. And I hate that kind of dancing too. Guess I’m kinda old-fashioned that way.”
    â€œI don’t like rap or hip-hop either.”
    She scanned several stations. The breezy lyrics of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something filled the air. You say that we’ve got nothing in common, no common ground to start from… She grinned. “Apropos, don’t you think? I agree with you on the dancing, by the way. If I’m going to copulate with someone, I’d rather do it in private than in the middle of a dance floor.”
    â€œCopulate? Strange word choice. Sounds a bit…clinical.”
    â€œYeah, well, I guess my brain is trained to think in scientific terms.”
    â€œWhy’s that?”
    â€œI’m a biology major. Pre-vet actually. I’ve taken almost everything I can at Mt. San Jacinto Community College. I’ll be transferring soon to UC Davis.”
    â€œOh yeah?”
    â€œI hope to get into the veterinary college, but it’s pretty competitive. I’m doing a summer internship at a wolf sanctuary to improve my chances.”
    â€œA wolf sanctuary? In Southern California?”
    â€œYes. It’s run by a group that wants to reintroduce wolves to California.”
    â€œYeah,” he scoffed. “Because that program’s been such a raving success in the Rockies.”
    â€œWhat do you mean? Conservationists have saved them from the brink of extinction.”
    â€œWolves have been saved all right. And if they keep multiplying at the current rate, it’s our livestock that’ll be on the endangered list.”
    She crossed her arms. “People should eat less meat anyway. It’s unhealthy.”
    Reid cursed under his breath. “Ever been around a wolf, Haley?”
    â€œNo, but I’ve worked at dog kennels for years.”
    â€œWolves are not dogs,” he argued. “You need to get that straight from the start. Don’t think that a wolf can be tamed or trained. Or even a wolf cross. They might be cute and furry, but they’re damned dangerous animals.”
    â€œThey still deserve our respect and our protection. All animals do.”
    â€œI don’t argue that. I like and respect animals too, but predators like wolves and grizzlies need to be kept in check.”
    â€œWhat do you mean by that?”
    â€œI mean their numbers need to be managed.”
    â€œYou mean by killing them?”
    â€œWhen necessary,” he said.
    â€œSo you’re one of them ?” She shook her head. “Why should that surprise me? I can partly understand people who hunt game for subsistence, but the ones who consider hunting and killing pure sport are another matter.”
    â€œThere’s something you need to understand before you pass judgment. I was born hunting, tracking, and shooting. I held my first rifle at about six years old. Killed my first elk at twelve. My family runs a hunting outfit just outside Yellowstone. It’s been our livelihood for three generations. “
    â€œAnd I suppose you have all those animal heads mounted on your wall as trophies?”
    â€œI do. A whole roomful. And I’m not going to apologize for it. I like hunting and shooting, but I’ve never killed anything just for the hell of it. We eat all the game animals. And every predator I’ve ever taken has been at the behest of the Fish and Wildlife Managers. Trophy hunting helps maintain the ecological balance.”
    â€œNature did fine on its own until people like you almost wiped out the predators.”
    â€œPeople like me ?” He mumbled another