Repeat
Repeat
Repeat and didn’t need to

Friday, the four main members of the East Alabama Rabbit Hunters & Souse Eaters Social Club, ended up at the pine plantation mainly because we had to go somewhere.
The end results weren’t the dogs fault and it wasn’t where we went fault. We just couldn’t hem them up. We were 3 for 8 (? Close enough) and one of them was a jump shot though it wasn’t know for several minutes that the rabbit I shot had been kicked out of a briar patch by Brag only yards in front of me while he watched with the dogs only twenty yards or so in front of him.

Cuz got the first one on the edge of the thick short planted pines between the gate and the paved road. Lady had separated from the other eight dogs and was running this one by herself. Seven of those races were in the area parallel to the gate, stretching to the road. And all those logging trucks roaring past going by made me extremely nervous. I could just see the combined packs becoming possum kibble as they made a mad dash across the pavement.

The dogs were jumping high and running low, into a large bowl shaped hardwood bottom with spotty stands of vining briars, honeysuckle and muscadine. With the recent rain, the dogs had trouble keeping on the trail after the rabbit ran down wet weather creeks and pools of standing water. Steep sided, the large bowl shaped.

After the dogs would lose the trail, Brag and I would urge them back up the hill, away from the paved road though not a rabbit has crossed it in several years. Still…….

At the top, Brag and I would meet Rye and Cuz to discuss where to try next with the dogs milling around when one or the other would jump and the race was on.

Repeat the above three times.

On the fourth, the rabbit only flirted with going into the bottom. But it was just enough for me and Brag to take off, certain that we would cut him off this time.

What turned out to be the final race of the day was started by Lucy, the puppy of the pack that Brag and I had been training all summer. She looks like she is part beagle and part wiener dog, but she has a pretty good nose though she is a little shorter than we like. Still she is just as cute as she can be.

Brag said her head snapped around and a yip slipped out as she crossed the rabbits trail. I heard her on the other side of the tangle as she tried to work it out and Brag urging the other dogs, Maizie, Dixie, Julie, Kate, Judy, Lady and Lacey (Precious having disappeared on a earlier race. Details when I find out) to come and help out.
Something moved only a couple of yards from my feet. I tipped the business end of the 16ga. Fox toward the head of a buck rabbit as he crawled out of the tangles in preparation to a mad dash. Instead of shooting I stomped my foot at him and started the age old shreik “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Here, Here, Here, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit”

The race was on. That wonderful sound of eight dogs in full cry on a hot scent washed up and over us. Brag made the shot as the rabbit completed the first circuit.

Not to bad a day.