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. This mornings pre--season exercise went well. I had Brag and my three dogs, Maizie, Julie and Dixie, while Rye and Cuz had Judy, Lady (who will run a deer if she has company) and Cuz’s new dog, Precious, so-named by a previous owner. I have questions about any hunting dog named Precious.

We started at our gate on the pine plantation near Seale, Alabama. The gate is set back off the paved road about 200 yards, leaving plenty of room for a rabbit to be run without worrying about a logging truck turning the pack into a flat pile of road kill.

We walked for almost a hour without jumping a single rabbit, despite Brag telling us that he jumped as soon as he got the dog’s settled down last Sunday. Making our way back to the truck, Precious started barking with her nose to the ground. The rest of the dogs raced to her, ready to assist in getting the rabbit up. Judy, who truly won’t run anything but a rabbit (not counting bobcats, eh djmed?) quit the trail and moved away. I felt something at my feet and looked down to see Julie looking at me somewhat anxiously. Dixie joined her less than a minute later. The electronic pine limbs with their eight levels of stimulation have pretty much broke those two of running trash. Maizie figures that deer run to far for her fat butt to chase. Lady, still not sure about Precious, decided to stick with pack she had hunted with last year instead of following what seemed to be a deer trail. Precious, broke off after 10 minutes or so and rejoined the pack as we made our way back to the truck.

Suddenly, a deer burst out of a small thicket in front of me and the pack of six dogs. I tensed and reached for the transmitter. I needn’t have bothered. Only four, Maizie, Julie, Dixie and Judy actually saw the deer. They stared at the bounding deer for a minute before Brag and my dogs turned to look at me with guilty looking expressions like I might have been reading their thoughts. Only Lady and Precious showed the slightest interest in the smell but Lady decided to follow the main packs decision to ignore it. Precious, unable to get any company followed reluctantly.

We loaded the dogs and road to what is laughingly refereed to as the cabins. Last year, I exercised the dogs regularly on the cabin rabbit. The dogs jumped and started running near the out house. This cabin rabbit ran tight circles even sprinting under one of the campers parked under the trees. Cuz yelled “There he goes.” A minute later he called out “There goes another one.” The pack broke up as they ran the two rabbits. The rabbits crossed trails in a few minutes and the pack rejoined after a single rabbit. They lost that rabbit on the power line and milled around trying to reacquire the scent.

I heard Rye yelling for the dogs and ran to him. Rye had seen the rabbit run down the old logging road, stop, then run back for ten or so yards before making a long leap to the dog less side of the road. I helped Rye call the dogs till Julie and Judy came into sight. Rye reached down and gave a small branch a shake just as the dogs ran up to get the dog’s attention to where the rabbit disappeared. Julie, startled at the sight of a charging rabbit, actually gave a jump to one side as the rabbit shot out less than five feet from where we had been calling for the dogs.

They ran him for twenty minutes or so, filling the spring woods with their melodious music that all dog hunters love. After they lost him, we loaded up. Time to close out the day on a winning note.