Every Saturday without fail, Brag and I have ran the dogs since turkey season ended here in middle eastern Alabama. Invariably, we have had nice fairly cool running weather with a dew or more on the ground, even now in the dog days of August. As a matter of fact, the last tough hunt, weather wise, was our last run at the Capps place out past Crawford, Alabama. That was the last time Rye, the current elder of our rabbit hunting group tentatively named the “East Alabama Rabbit Hunters and Souse Eaters Social Club, attended. The heat got to him that day.

Today, there was a light misting drizzle as we loaded the dogs for our Saturday trip to where our hunting club has a lease on a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama. Thirteen week old Lucy settled down for the ride, sharing her compartment with docile Maizie. She’s getting to be an old hand at the transport end of the game, this being her third trip. Part of the road was in it's usual state of disrepair.

The long walk down the straight firebreak that ran on the top of a long,,,,well I suppose us flatlanders would call a ridge, though you people from steeper climes would laugh at such a description, from where we parked the pathfinder. Halfway down the break to where we had planned to start, Julie’s head snapped down to the damp pine straw.

heavy with the promise of rain, the sound of the three adult beagles nosing a warm track had the eleven and a half week old rabbit dog in training, Lucy, moving between Brag and myself on the dirt road. Brag, Uncle NoPass’s grandson and my rabbit/dog partner, had convinced me to run “the gate” this morning, a patch of exceedingly thick planted pines about a hundred yards between the gate to my hunting lease in Seale, Alabama and the paved road.

The three adult beagles went into full cry as the track became blisteringly hot.
As we watched, Lucy suddenly plunged into the undergrowth to be with her new Aunties, Maizie, Dixie and Julie.

Not the sound of a watch, for those of you who are still familiar with the sound of a mechanical watch, but the sound of Rye, Brag and myself as we pulled each tick off of our bodies.

Day didn’t break but instead arrived stealthily with the subtle changing of dark into a gray morning of overcast skies as I pulled into Ryes yard with three beagles, Julie, Dixie and Maizie for company. Brag had to make a detour this morning to pick up Uncle NoPass and his remaining two dogs, Kate and Lacey. Uncle NoPass of the NoPass Chronicles hadn’t hunted since the January of 04 hunts. Old age infirmities had caught up with him. Worse than body slowing down was the lose of hearing. Deprived of hearing the beautiful sounds of dogs in hot pursuit of their prey after a life time of running dogs after various prey, Uncle NoPass couldn’t seem to find the desire to attend the hunts, not even for the socializing. He kept Kate, his last dog acquired as a puppy and Lacey because, well, I suppose old habits die hard.

"Thank goodness I had a set of GF’s.” I yelled out the window when I pulled up next to the truck where Cuz, Brag and Rye, my rabbit hunting partners stood.
Cuz yelled back “ That new bride of yorns is gonna skin your butt when you get home…..that’s if I believed your story to begin with”

“All right, which one of you farted?”, I asked Maizie, Julie and Dixie, the three short legged beagles resting in their box behind the rear seat in GF’s new jeep. From the thumps coming from the Maizie’s side of the dog box, I know who I suspected. Despite the hectic morning that started when I couldn’t find my keys, my day just had to start shaping up. After all we were going to run the Capps place today.

Rye asked as Maizie hit the ground from the back of Brag’s little pick up. Rye is the elder of our rabbit hunting fraternity since Uncle NoPass hunted his last rabbit about one and a half years ago. The group consists of four main members, Brag, who is Uncle NoPass’s grandson and my rabbit hunting and dog owning partner. Cuz, who not only holds the lease on our deer hunting property but knows quite a few people who will let us on their property. Rye, who is Cuz’s best friend and neighbor. And me, rimfire, also known as Chuck.

I suppose Rye thought that was as funny as last week when I said I might have to build a ramp for Maizie to get in and out of my pathfinder.. Well, it was. Besides Maizie is getting a little chun, er, well, to be charitable FAT.

We got a late start this morning despite Brag and I had agreed to meet at my father’s house at 6:15. I’ve been staying some with 2 because of his broke hip. I talked about that on my general rant and rave site, “redneckin”.

At ten till seven, I decided that Brag had gotten confused and thought that he was supposed to me Rye and myself at the cabin on our hunting lease, a pine plantation near Seale, Alabama. Being at 2’s, I didn’t have acess to my coffee pot so I headed to the McDonalds near Phenix City’s high school football stadium. Just before Idlehour park, I saw Brag’s truck coming up on a side road. Turned out, he had forgot where 2 lived, not having been there but once before. That’s his story, personally, since I’ve never seen him lost in any type of situation before, I think my old fartism is wearing off on him.

If Maizie gains anymore weight I’ll have to build a ramp to get her in the dog box.

When I got to Cuz’s house, Judy was alone in her new pen that Cuz and Rye had built for his dogs. When Cuz and Rye say they built something, you can pretty well bet that meant they supervised whoever they got to do the actual physical work. Judy looked a little lost in the new pen. That was understandable since moving from her old pen to the new one was like swapping a room at Boones motel on the Old Opelika Road for a room at the Hilton. I might actually be willing for my dogs to spend the night at Cuz’s now.

Brag picked up Dixie, Julie and Maizie before daylight this morning and took them to Seale, Alabama where I have a membership in Cuz's hunting lease on a pine plantation.

Brag reports that they ran and played around for ten-fifteen minutes. That was understandable since they had been in their pen since the last rabbit hunt on the last day of the 04-05 season. They jumped shortly after that and ran for almost almost two hours before losing the rabbit. Brag said he saw the rabbit several times as it looped across the firebreaks he was listening and watching from. Brag put them up after that race and had them back home before ten. He said he decided to close out the morning on a winning note and there was no use in burning them out after setting up so long.

He plans to run them again next Saturday, but I'll be in Apalachicola with GF. Cuz and I plan to run Brag and my pack and his two at the old Capps place when I come back.