According to the Guardian Unlimited (UK), Cheney has doctors with him at all times, and his own private ambulance standing by.

The owner of the ranch, Katharine Armstrong, witnessed the incident.

"The vice-president didn't see him," she told the Associated Press news agency. "He picked out a bird and shot and, my God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.

"It broke the skin," she said. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."

Mrs Armstrong added that these things happen "from time to time - you know, I've been peppered pretty well myself".

Fortunately for Mr Whittington, a millionaire lawyer from Austin, the vice-president's medical team, on permanent call due to his sometimes fragile physical condition, were nearby.

"Fortunately, the vice-president has got a lot of medical people round him and they were right there," Mrs Armstrong said.

"He has an ambulance permanently on call and it came immediately."

Although the incident occurred at 5.30pm, Mr Whittington was not admitted to the nearby Corpus Christi Memorial hospital until 8.15pm. He was treated for birdshot injuries to the neck, chest and face, and was said to be in good condition and good spirits.

Yesterday, he was visited by Mr Cheney at the hospital.

Source://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1708599,00.html

On one of the blogs, I saw that Cheney was reported to have been in Pennsylvania in 2003, shooting farm-bred pheasants that were released in batches of 500. Cheney's party allegedly shot 416 of them, with Cheney personally bagging 70 of his own. This is called "canned hunting," or skeet shooting using live targets. Cheney was reported to be using a 28 gauge shotgun, which some hunters call a "lady's gun," because it doesn't have much kick when you shoot.

Some questions from the blogs: Was this trip also a "canned hunting" trip? Where was Lynne while Dick and the ambassador lady were out hunting together? Did anyone ever get around to filing a police report, said to be required by Texas law, even if an accident? Was Cheney drinking? Did my taxes pay for this whole trip or only part of it (the SS and traveling hospital)?