When I first met my wife, she used to go run sets with me daily, caught many animals herself, etc. but after we were married that stopped abruptly. Come to find out was one of those I'll do anything to show you I like you but don't expect a lifetime of this.
However, she has always been extremely understanding of how much it means to me, and fully supports what I do every fall/winter. We have an agreement that it doesn't make it into the house, period, but OK in the shed out back or in her family farm out buildings. I strip at the door when I get home, clean up, do my own laundry, and keep the exposure to the unpleasantness to a minimum for her, and we get along just fine. She very much allows me to spend time/money on my passion because she understands it is important to feed your soul. She has things that I am not of fan of either, but I go along and fully support what is important to her also. That keeps our relationship stronger, I believe, by supporting each other's interests fully. Not necessarily participating in them, just recognizing that the differences are what makes us unique individuals and by supporting each other in them maintains a close bond, friendship, and love for each other.
For someone who grew up on a farm, with animals, she has a peculiar paranoia about cleanliness and "germs" from animals. But I respect it and do my best to make what I love to as unabtrusive on her space and requests as much as possible. It has worked out great. Sure there have been some compromises, like I would love to convert some of my garage into fur finishing areas, but we agreed to move that to her family's farm barn corner, which is very close to where I do most of my trapping so it works out very well anyway.
She also gets a kick out me when we drive anywhere...I'm leaning to check out creeks, bridges, beaver dams, edges of fields, pasture areas, ponds, etc. and we can both ID roadkill from quite a distance, a skill she said I taught her that she would rather not boast about but cannot help doing it because she has learned by color, size, fur texture, etc. what each species is that way.
She also knows that when I don't come strolling in the house until very late at night, she knows exactly where I have been and what I have been doing. As she put it, no "other woman" in the world would come close to me smelling like that! If its not trapping odors, its fish or fishing bait odors in the offseason. Probably provides some comfort level to her, offensive as it may be to her.
Yes, a good woman is a good thing to hang on to...and work hard to keep her happy and love her very much...it is well worth the effort in having a good friend and long-lasting relationship.
Jim
