On the heels of his highly-acclaimed novel Jenny Willow, Mike Gaddis reaches again into a half-century love affair with pointing dogs and upland birds to retrieve the true-life story of Zip Zap, his greatest English setter. Gaddis swore to be painfully selective in choosing the puppy that would accompany him as he pursued his dream of competing in horseback field trials. He knew the smallest female of the litter was special, but he didn't fully realize her potential until he let her loose in the field. Her lightning speed earned her the name Zip Zap, and she grew to be the most brilliant bird dog Gaddis ever owned. In this absorbing memoir, Gaddis celebrates the dog's indomitable spirit and tells the story of training and developing a superior pointer, from her first unrefined runs in the amateur puppy stakes to victorious performances in major championships. Evocatively told and set against the plantation quail hunting and field trialing legacy of the Old South, here is a rich, powerful memoir, certain to gain favor with anyone who has shared the destiny of a once-in-a-lifetime dog.

Zip Zap: The True Story of a Dog and a Dream

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gaddis, Mike

Pets & Animal Care

Stackpole Books

This powerful memoir tells the story of training and developing a superior pointing dog and is certain to gain favor with anyone who has shared the destiny of a once-in-a-lifetime dog.

Zip Zap

In stories of mentorship as affecting as The Old Man and the Boy come moments that we must never forget, when we learned as much from woods and waters as from a spelling booknot only in kind and gentle remembrances, but in intuitive vignettes, present and future. Legend’s Legacy stands unparalleled as an affecting commemoration of the most endearing and enduring aspects of our sporting traditions, and an inspiring tribute to those who cared, who taught us then, and guide us still.

Legend's Legacy: The Hand at our Shoulder

Antiques & Collectibles

Skyhorse

Jenny Willow

Jenny Willow is a love story, one that explores the love of a man for a dog, a dog for a man, and a man for a mountain. Ben Willow loves above all else setter dogs, the mountains of West Virginia, and grouse. At eighty-three, a lonely widower, he finds himself also without a dog. A twist of fortune brings one last dog into his life, Jenny, a little English setter pup of undeniable brilliance. She proves to be among the very best he has ever known. With her, he rediscovers hope and living, pledging himself again to the birds and the hills. He hopes he can live long enough to last Jenny's lifetime. The greatest betrayal to a gun dog is to deny her her reasons for being: her master, the gun, and the hunt. Jenny Willow is a story about a great dog, but it is more than a dog story. Beautifully told, steeped in the natural wonders of West Virginia's mountains, it is about one man's transcendent love of freedom and the loyalty true friendship requires. No one who reads this first novel will ever forget Ben or Jenny Willow.

Jenny Willow: A Novel

". . . an unusually heartwarming novel no reader can ever forget. Opening doors into the heart, Gaddis writes about love and loss and about the important small things that are missed unless one takes time to look closely. He spins a warm, gentle tale about dogs and about people." --Sanford (SC) Herald "It is a treasure, JENNY WILLOW, a rare find . . . one no selfrespecting sporting library should be without." --The NRA's American Hunter Ben Willow loves above all else setter dogs, the mountains of West Virginia, and grouse. At eighty-three years old, widowed and lonely, a twist of fortune brings one last setter into his life: Jenny, a pup of undeniable brilliance. Jenny proves to be the best bird dog Ben has ever known, but more important, she becomes the old man's reason to live. He hopes he can last her lifetime. The greatest betrayal to a gun dog is to deny her her reasons for being: her master, the gun, and the hunt. But when Ben's heart gives out while hunting, Jenny is suddenly alone on the mountain. A winter snowstorm comes in; Jenny is lost, attacked by a pack of wild dogs, and dog-napped by a sadistic hermit. Her hair-raising rescue by Ben's friend, Clyde-the local storekeeper-requires nothing less than murder. JENNY WILLOW is more than a dog story. Beautifully told, steeped in the wonders of the natural world, it is about the relationship between a man and a dog, one man's transcendent love of freedom, and the loyalty true friendship requires. No one who reads this first novel will ever forget Ben or Jenny Willow.

Literature & Fiction

Lyons Pr

There is a juncture in every journey when your heart must find soon again something long, dear, and gently known. There is a waver in the wildest of wanderlust when the soul runs dry and must come again to the thing, the place, or the somebody that can make it replete. There is to every life an awakening that the miles ahead are greatly less than the ones behind, that beyond all things lies an endthat you must come again as closely as you can to where you begin. Turning for home” . . . It is not always back to where you departed. It is not always from the place you have been. It is as much of the mind as of the matteras much a coming, oftentimes, as a going. Sometimes the voyage is easy; sometimes the passage is steep. When we follow the ache of our souls, we discover that our emotions have been buried in many places, and that easily the most painful of these are those to which we can never return at all. Here, in a new and eclectic compilation of masterful stories and essays, one of the most revered sporting authors of our time contemplates the homecomings of the sportsman’s heart. He unearths a treasury of broadly divergent encounters, from the delightfully absurd hilarity of Love Gloves,” to the piercingly intense melancholy of A Prayer from Dark Timber.” Each is told with an insight and dexterity that rarely gains expression, and each is drawn from the timeless and beloved pathways of the sporting life that wander between a laugh and a tear. Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for hunters and firearms enthusiasts. We publish books about shotguns, rifles, handguns, target shooting, gun collecting, self-defense, archery, ammunition, knives, gunsmithing, gun repair, and wilderness survival. We publish books on deer hunting, big game hunting, small game hunting, wing shooting, turkey hunting, deer stands, duck blinds, bowhunting, wing shooting, hunting dogs, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Turning for Home

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