What Noem’s shot heard around the world says about her approach to problems

Cricket might have turned out to be a fine hunting dog, or just a good companion.

We’ll never know, because Kristi Noem killed her, with a shot years ago that is now being heard around the world of politics in South Dakota and beyond.

At least, that’s one of the stories our governor tells in her forthcoming memoir, an advanced copy of which was apparently obtained by The Guardian, a British newspaper that broke the story.

When I heard that Noem’s new book describes how she shot and killed one of her dogs, I figured the animal was old or sick or badly injured. I assumed it was a mercy killing. Such things happen with some regularity in farm country.

But I soon learned that, no, the dog Noem killed was a perfectly healthy, 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer, a really cool-looking, hard-charging breed that is widely respected in the hunting community.

Cricket wasn’t sick or old or dying. She was misbehaving, according to excerpts from the memoir “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.”

As reported in The Guardian, the governor writes of Cricket’s unruly behavior and “aggressive personality” and admits: “I hated that dog.”

Noem writes of a time when Cricket went “out of her mind with excitement” during a pheasant hunt and spoiled the hunt for others. Eventually, she decided Cricket was “untrainable” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog” and possibly a danger to others because of her aggressiveness.

Noem also writes about how Cricket got loose and killed some of another family’s chickens, then “whipped around to bite me” when Noem caught the dog. Noem wrote that she realized she had to “put her down.”

So she did it herself, as Noem’s story goes, with a gun. And after she blasted Cricket, she decided it was time to give the lead gift to a “nasty and mean” goat on the Noem farm.

Noem used the incidents as part of the pitch for her memoir on X (formerly Twitter), posting a link to the book and writing: “If you want more real, honest, and politically INcorrect stories that’ll have the media gasping, preorder ‘No Going Back.’”

So, there’s a lot of marketing going on in this, as well, perhaps, as some enriched storytelling. And while Noem writes in the book that “a better politician” probably wouldn’t tell the stories of her animal executions, it’s clearly all about politics.

It’s certainly not about thoughtful, responsible dog ownership.

I never knew Cricket. But I’ve known many hunting dogs, some of them mine, that have lost their minds in a field full of pheasants and scent. It’s especially tough for a young dog. And pointing breeds like wirehairs tend to be a bit more hard-charging and difficult to control in such situations.

So it’s the responsibility of the dog owner to have the young dog as well trained and prepared as possible long before the hunt. Then the owner must try to put the dog in situations where it’s least likely to “lose its mind” and most likely to succeed.

It’s an imperfect process, where failure is common and usually more on the owner than on the dog. And owners fail a lot, especially in pheasant fields. I know. I’ve failed there plenty myself. Over the years, my dogs have sometimes made me angry and frustrated. But I’ve never hated them. And I’ve certainly never wanted to kill them.

And each dog, with its various idiosyncrasies and challenges, has enriched my hunting experience and my life.

Since the story broke, it has blown up on social media and made the rounds of the usual suspects in the actual news media. I assume that’s exactly what Noem and her political advisers expected and wanted.

It’s almost certain that the Cricket portions of the memoir were read and approved by those advisers before publication. I guess the Noem team figured it would be good for her national profile and, especially, her effort to be selected as Donald Trump’s running mate.

The blowback so far seems mostly from the left or middle. But you’d think some conservative dog lovers would be upset, too. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, Noem promotes herself as a country tough problem-solver who is willing to do the “difficult, messy, ugly” things, like killing her own dog, when necessary.

No question, shooting a family dog is difficult, messy and ugly. I know from personal experience. When I was in college I came home on a Friday night to find our old, terminally ill dog Muffin in agony. My dad had died a few years earlier and my mother was living alone and had been unable to bring herself to take Muffin to the vet for the final time.

With veterinary care maybe unavailable until Monday, I did what I thought was right. I took Muffin out into the river breaks and shot her. Then I broke down and sobbed. And sobbed. And sobbed. More than 50 years later, my eyes still fill with tears whenever I talk about it, and as I write this.

Maybe I could have done something different. Maybe I should have done something different. But Muffin was at the end of her life, and in agony. And I couldn’t stand to see it prolonged.

Noem is just like her father in good and bad ways

Cricket was young and healthy and had a full dog’s life ahead. Maybe a very good life. And I have to believe that someone out there could have given it to her, if Noem had taken the time to look for the right person or right place.

Or she could have kept Cricket and tried more training and handling techniques — including patience — to find ways to make Cricket work in the fields and at home. Instead, she gave up and solved the problem with a gun.

Boom.

Sure, the moment was “difficult, messy and ugly.” But it was also a simple solution to a complicated problem — and, really, an easy way out.

Which brings me back to the title of Noem’s book: “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.”

Gov. Noem wants us to believe that she can solve the multiplicity of complex problems facing our nation, yet she couldn’t even solve the problem of an unruly dog.

At least, not without a gun.