Opening Day (Socialist Wolves)

I had forgotten that it's opening day of the general big game rifle hunting season until I started working on the shift and daily reports at 4:00 am and suddenly the trucks began pulling in.

Lot's of big trucks, and trailers towing ATVs, and camouflage-clad hunters wearing NRA and Cabela's hats stopping by for gas, coffee, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, donuts, water and soda pop. Most were cheerful and excited; opening day is like Christmas morning in Montana. This promises to be a good one with a night of rain down low and fresh snow in the mountains. I was feeling a bit left out. 

I offered the usual assortment of opening-day pleasantries:

"Going after deer or elk?"  
"Good luck!"
"Great weather for it!"
"Should have some good tracking snow if you get up high enough."
"They might still be bugling."

Here are some of my favorite responses:

"Damn elk are too hard to find, I'm sticking with deer."
"I'm too damn old to hunt elk!"
"Just going to take my rifle for a walk."
"We'll see if there's any elk left with all these damn wolves we've got around now."

But this one topped them all (from a guy who looked like he couldn't walk half the length of a football field, never mind find, kill and pack out an elk):

"I doubt there's even many elk left out there since Obama and the liberals forced all these damn Canadian wolves on us."

He was serious.

"Probably damn socialist wolves," I said.

He laughed and replied: "You got that right!"