Taz reminds me of my Big Red I had as a kid. He was an Irish Setter that had been put out because be was too slow to jeep hunt Quail. He and I hit it off and he was my protector and pal. My mom could not raise her voice to me when Red was around. He would not allow strangers close to us kids, and bit the heck out of a man who walked up to my sisters play pen out in the yard one day without speaking to mom. He would go crazy if we ever got a gun out, pointed and honored better than any dog I ever had. Everyone knew Red and respected him. You best not come around the house if you did not come straight to the front door and knock. His neck hair would stand up and he had this low growl that said you are treading on thin ice buddy. The only other person he ever bit I know was my mother when Red was fighting with a pointer over some deer meat scraps and she reached in to break up the fight. He was so ashamed of his mistake he sulked around with his head down for almost a week. Mom did not blame him, she knew better than to stick her hand between two fighting dogs. Red lived 21 years we know of, despite being being poisoned one time. He became blind and deaf and passed away while I was off at school.
When Red died, I got another Red Setter, Belle, who was almost the same way. she slept under the babies' bed and you had best tell her you were there or she would pull your feet out from under you. She would always stop one of the kids from going toward the street even if she had to throw the kid down and sit on him.
Some of God's greatest gifts are a good woman and a good dog, and I am lucky, or blessed. to have had both in my life.