It's rabbit hunt update time. All right, knock it off and read. There's only 15 days left.

Sunday’s rabbit hunt, while not spectacular, was really enjoyable for reasons other than the number of rabbits.

In addition to the usual Sunday crew of Cuz, Rubin, Brag, Dusty, Cuz’s grandson and myself was one of Dusty’s friends, Reed. While Dusty is getting to be an old hand at chasing bunnies, this was Reed’s first rabbit hunt. We started off the day on a piece of clear cut property in Pittsview. Thickly replanted, the pines had reached large Christmas tree size and any shooting would have to be between the rows at a limited distance. That did not turn out to be a problem.

Cuz’s new dog, Little girl, by way of a trade with our mutual Uncle NoPass, promptly started trailing until she jumped. Cuz had swapped Last Chance (Last was added to his name because of my continuous threats to leave him under a brush pile if he didn’t show some interest in rabbits) Back to NoPass for Little Girl. NoPass wouldn’t tolerate a dog that ran a deer and as I noted in my previous post about our hunt in the Tuskegee National Forest, she was the one who led Kate and Lady astray that time. Cuz might have been taking a little advantage of our Uncle’s slipping memory in swapping a dog that wouldn’t run anything to Uncle NoPass, who had given him to Cuz in the first place.

She was in full cry as she went up the face of the next hill and then over it, fading into the distance. Judy, our main dog, never looked up.
Deer.
I don’t know which is worse having to hunt for a dog running a deer or having one you can’t get out from under your feet unless you shot your gun. Last Chance was a little gun shy on top of his other faults. Well, at least you could find him when it was time to go home. Maybe Uncle NoPass didn’t get the raw end of the deal after all.

We beat the brush and briars for the rest of the morning and never got a race. We had decided to break for a lunch that consisted mainly of souse meat, hot sauce and crackers when Judy jumped. The race lasted only a minute or so before Brag killed the rabbit. Then Judy jumped again and after a short race, Reed killed his first rabbit in front of dogs. From the way he acted at lunch, I suspect another rabbit hunter has been born.

We moved back to Seale to finish out the day at the old beaver pond. It hadn’t been run in a few years and it was on the way home. Brag was on fire and added two more rabbits to our bag of five for the day. Both were shot after nicely run races by Judy and Little Girl. We put leads on the dog as the light faded in the overgrown bottom and Brag and I made plans to bring Uncle NoPass back today for an afternoon hunt. I’ll post the results later.