Carlo Foti, an avid waterfowl hunter from Loreauville, kills ducks and speckle-bellied geese on the lease in Vermilion Parish near Kaplan. His constant companion, Cane, a 3-year-old black Labrador retriever, is always at his side, except when he retrieves one of the birds.

That BLT sandwich from Suire’s Grocery and Restaurant on Louisiana 35 just south of Kaplan sure tastes good following an early morning duck hunt, so much so that eating one has become a post-hunt tradition for a duck hunter from Loreauville.

Carlo Foti always saves one-quarter of the delicious sandwich, rewraps it in the plastic and, to the amazement of his nephews, takes it outside to give to the most important member of the duck hunting party. Cane, his 3-year-old black Labrador retriever, sure appreciates it.

After all, Foti explains to the young men, Cane works the hardest when they go duck hunting on the 50-acre lease in the Vermilion Parish rice fields that he shares with his two older brothers, Gerard Foti, 58, and Peter Foti, 56, and local duck hunters Jim Simon and Jason Romero.

There’s more, much more, to his appreciation of man’s best friend than that. Cane is the reason the 53-year-old St. Martinville native is back in heaven on earth, which is what every duck hunting trip is to Foti.

Foti, who along with his brothers has owned Foti Furniture since October 1989 in New Iberia, started duck hunting with his father, the late Lawrence Henry Foti, when he was 13. 

“He got us all into hunting pretty much,” Foti said Friday morning as he drove from home to the store on East Admiral Doyle Drive.

His father also gave him his first shotgun, a 20-gauge Remington Model 1100 that he still uses for dove hunting, he said.

Lawrence Henry Foti? Who? Well, no one, except his immediate family and, perhaps, close friends, knew the St. Martinville furniture and appliance store owner as Lawrence Henry. Everyone, his son said, emphasizing the word, knew him as “Canary.” People called him Mr. Canary and they called his wife, Anna, Miss Canary. Always.

The elder Foti, who took over his father’s appliance and television store, died in October 1991. Anna, er, “Miss Canary,” still owns and operates C’est Jolie Flowers on East Bridge Street in St. Martinville, going to work every day, at age 89.

Carlo Foti, the youngest of their three sons, became an avid duck hunter, eventually going more and more with his brothers, particularly Gerard, when they would hunt ducks in the drainage pits of the old St. John Sugar Mill.

Foti got away from duck hunting after he graduated from St. Martinville High School, then earned a degree in political science and English with a minor in business from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He married Trini Borel of Loreauville 30 years ago and they settled in Loreauville, where they raised two daughters — Fallon Foti Kallenburger, whose husband, Maxwell, hunts with him occasionally, and Shelby Foti, who is studying PT in Austin, Texas.

All the while, his shotguns stayed home. But he always had a Labrador retriever as a pet.

Three years ago, the Fotis welcomed Cane into their lives. It was almost a short stay, however.

“When we got him, he was a very active dog. He chewed up everything, everything,” Foti said.

It almost reached the point where they got rid of the mischievous Cane. Foti’s wife, who is CFO at the St. Mary Sugar Co-op, had an idea.

“Trini said she knows this trainer in the Charenton area that one of the guys at work used,” Foti said, noting they went that route before making a final decision on Cane.

They sent Cane to Keith Richard, who recently returned to training dogs after suffering a stroke in the early 2010s.

“Keith is an excellent guy. He started working with Cane,” Foti said.

The first few times his wife brought the young Lab, Richard, wanting to know the dog’s history, asked for its papers. When she brought the documentation on about the third trip, he looked at the papers, paused and asked her to come back to his kennels.

“It just so happened Cane’s dad was Keith’s dog, Itching to Go,” Foti said.

Later, Foti went to watch his dog be trained one day by one of the best in the South. When he saw Cane working well with “bumper dummies,” the duck hunting switch was turned on.

Foti realized how much he loved and missed duck hunting. He started duck hunting again with Cane.

“God has ways of putting things in life. God does things for a reason,” he said.

Richard’s comeback from the stroke, the way he has resumed training dogs despite some physical limitations, also serves as an inspiration to Foti.

“Still, to this day, we’re friends,” he said.

And he’s friends with his nephews, who go duck hunting with him often. Much of the time he’s with Michael Foti, Gerard’s son, a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Anthony Foti, Peter’s son, a freshman at ULL, and Jared Matis, son of Foti’s sister, Jared Matis, an engineering graduate from ULL, in the duck blind along Liberty Farms Road.

“It’s really an awesome experience to hunt in the blind and talk to them and really get to know them. It’s fun,” he said.

They are sharing their uncle’s passion and love for the outdoors.

“When you see the sun coming up, the ducks coming in, it’s beautiful. I just enjoy it so much,” Foti said.

The start of another duck hunting season triggers those moments every year, like clockwork. That happened a week ago Saturday and the shooting time couldn’t have come a minute later for Foti and Cane.

“You forget about it until you get back and see it. That’s nature. That’s what God created it for,” he said.

Opening day of the 2018-19 waterfowl hunting season was a successful one for the Fotis and others on the lease near Kaplan.

“Everybody pretty much killed a limit,” he said.

Foti expects the recent cold front to push more ducks into South Louisiana. He shot some mallards Thursday, a good sign.

“I’m impressed to see big ducks at this time of the season,” he said.

“I really look forward to the hunting season. I like the cold. The duck hunting season comes with the cold,” he said.

The numbers, the harvest, don’t concern him at all on any trip, he said, adding it’s all about getting out there.

And, of course, sharing a BLT with Cane.