Let me introduce you to Lucy

Brag and My newest addition to our rabbit hounds. She will be 11 weeks old on Monday. She’s a cute mixed breed of Beagle and I suspect from her long body, long ears and loose skin, Bassett. (We've since decided that she is a "beaner", part beagle and part wiener dog.) Hopefully, she will get the beagles energy and the bassett voice. She promises to be about the same size as our 11 incher’s, Maizie, Julie and Dixie. Cuz’s dogs are all about the same size except for the grand dame of the pack, Judy, who is about a 9 incher We have ran our hunting lease on a pine plantation in Seale, Alabama for the last few weeks that I have neglected to post about. While the sheer numbers of rabbits are few since there is little cover from the hawks and coyotes and little food compared to the Capps place where there seems to be a rabbit under every other bush , the cabin rabbit and the sand pit rabbits are usually dependable.

The puppy, Lucy rode along yesterday in the box with Julie. Julie is a little high strung and we really should have put Lucy in with Maizie, who is the motherly type.

Lucy hung out at my feet most of the morning and was dog tired when we got home. She trotted along through the brush and weeds as I moved along, taking a fairly easy route to monitor the other dogs. She used her nose a lot and got to sniff at a fresh rabbit track when the big buck rabbit circled back by us. I praised her then and scolded her when I led her to a fresh deer track.

Another good thing is that Lucy isn't gun shy. I fired my little pocket rocket (a .22 derringer) next to her twice though at different times. Nary a blink from her

I think she might make it, though this February will be when she hits her stride as a rabbit dog. This is her natural calling, that has been bred into her and her kind for generations. Brag and I are just going to help her along.

Rye, our current senior member in his early seventies hasn’t been going, sugar levels, the heat and possibly charging rabbits have kept him home

Cuz has been taking his mother in law home a lot lately. At least, I think that’s the euphemism that he is currently using for Biloxi.

The dogs, Julie, Dixie and Mazie have ran well although they seem to take a good 45 minutes before getting serious about the job. We usually get one-two good races, then quit for the day about ten a,m. as the heat builds. It’s been in the nineties lately and though the dogs are in good shape, there is no need to punish them.

Dixie gave us a scare over at the sawdust pile, a few weeks back. Her and Julie were nosing around when Dixie announced a hot track. I felt something and looked down to see Julie squatting at my feet, looking up at me.
Deer!
Dixie only ran about twenty yards barking only about three times before she quit and came back with her head hung down. The damage was done though and she has worn a collar the last couple of weeks. She hasn’t shown any inclination since that single slip up.

Dixie hates that collar with a passion, Maizie on the other hand has never felt it since she shows no desire to run deer. All Maizie really knows is that it means we’re going to the woods and thinks that it is a “best dog collar” (at least that’s what I told her) begging to have it put on.

Yesterday, the dogs ran the sand pit rabbit. He turned out to be a big buck rabbit that ran long loops up either side of a small creek bed that made a 90* turn. The wonderful sounds that the beagles made echoed up out of the bottom, promising sounds of fall and winter hunts