Mystery has passed.

I told you that we were keeping Mystery in the pen because she quit hunting and the weight poured off of her. We knew that it was a matter of weeks.

It's a shame, but this is the best picture I have of Mystery. The rest are group photos

It's from the hunt when Plunker and Brag became obsessed with a rabbit that ran into a hollow tree.

Mystery first turned up on a hunt in Chambers County at Plunker’s place. The title of that post was “Will hunt for food”.
I was soaking up the sun with my hat over my face when some of the teats with us informed me that the dogs were back.
“How many?” I asked to comfortable to look.
“All five”
Five? We didn’t turn out but four.
I lifted my hat to see what looked like a poor starved beagle puppy. A closer look showed that she was a full grown 11 incher with no hair on a bleeding tail and no collar around the neck.
The mysterious stranger tagged along with us to the trucks and gladly partook of some lunch.
Brag and I agreed that we didn’t need trouble and wouldn’t be taking her home.

Later a rabbit ran in front of me followed by the pack…..with the stranger in the lead. Her voice sounded like a three pack a day smoker, but she was burning up that rabbit. Later I compared her voice to “the cry of the strangled chicken. One of us killed the rabbit later and before we could get to it, she had eaten a good bit of it.
When we packed up to leave, the girls lined up behind the pathfinder waiting to be put into the box. Mystery joined the queue. She had hunted so hard, we didn’t have the heart to leave her.
Doc Caldwell, the Rabbit Journal’s veterinarian, gave her the annual shots and a routine exam that turned up no obvious problems

We never knew her to run anything but a rabbit.
On our Jeffersonville hunt, we hunted with some good ol boys out of Atlanta with a pack of 15 inch male dogs. They ran the Rabbit Journal pack into the ground. Kate and Lucy quit. Julie and Dixie ran but mostly on the tail end. Not Mystery. She didn't quit and was often in the lead after straightening out the trail for the other dogs. Later, all those boys could talk about was that little dog that sounded so funny, but ran with the big dogs.

We gave her a good life while she graced us with her presence. Good food, petted and seldom a harsh word. In return, she gave us a dependable performance while she could.

She was a good’un.
Rest in peace, Mystery.

Judy, age 11, passed away yesterday


Judy was Cuz's pride and joy, by way of Uncle NoPass
Ain't never run no deer. Why everybody says so.
If Judy was running, it was a pretty safe bet it was a rabbit. The only time that I know that she ran something other than a rabbit was a bobcat on our first hunt with djmed.

She didn't hunt much late in the year. Usually the first at the gate and last to return to the box, the last couple of times she stayed in her house while the others were being loaded up.
We all knew that she was fading fast, but still....


She was a good one. One of the things that I pride myself on was that I was one of the few people that Cuz would loan her to

two new, more or less permanent, members of the East Alabama Rabbit Hunters and Souse Eaters Social Club.

djmed really should have been recognized as such a long time ago. I'll never forget that when we first saw him unfolding himself from his full sized truck that the first words out of my mouth were "Did any of you boy's tick somebody's husband off?" Not fat, he's just a big man. And like most big men, he's a easygoing individual.
Do I need to tell you which one is djmed?


The newest member just turned up this year....Plunker.
He hunted hard with us this year, turned us on to some land, doesn't take offense at my writing and fed us rather well on our tailgate lunches. The last three being the most important.

The Rabbit Journal Pack
is joint owned by Brag and me, Rimfire.
Along with Cuz and Rye, we four make up the human core of the East Alabama Rabbit Hunters and Souse Eaters Social Club.

The rules of ownership for the Rabbit Journal pack are really simple-- They are my dogs when they are behaving and doing good. They are Brag’s dogs when they run trash or are noisy in the pen. The Pack is currently at five dogs. We might add one in a year or so. But for now, it’s

Dang, that’s a mouthful.
And, yes, we are. Characters, that is

You may call me Rimfire.
The dogs, mostly, call me boss or bossman, at least when I can hear them. No telling what they say behind my back. I’m in my mid fifties and am considered to be one of the most arrogant egotistical self-centered s.o.b.'s, most of my ex-wives have ever met. Leastways, according to them. I tend to favor wide brimed hats like panamas and pinch front fedoras along with a 16ga 29 Fox side by side that I like to shoot at rabbits.

Next would be

Julie
Is a tricolor with show beagle looks. She could benefit from an occasional xanax. She is a tad high strung and a bit standoffish. Her voice is a kind of a high pitched squeal. She is fast…the fastest of the pack. Julie has passed


Maizie
Maizie has passed. I'll be moving her profile and links to a Memorial page.
Well, Maizie tends to run to the heavy side, but in a tight hard way. She is a happy dog that tends to go her own way until another announces a hot track. She has an annoying habit of rolling over on her back when you’re going to pick her up. She’s ever really had the collar used on her. She thinks it’s the “Best Dog Collar” and insists that she be selected to wear one. The reason? She knows it, generally, means that we are going out for a run.


Abbie is the newest addition to the Rabbit Journal Pack. She's a black/ tan / Blue tick beagle pup that has papers. Not a rarity for the pack, but not something I really look for. Some of the best dogs I've seen have some sooner in them.
She's going to be a fast dog. If she can smell as fast as she can run, she'll leave the rest of the pack in the dust.
Abbie's not deceased, she just moved on to be a four year old boy's pet yard dog. The last I heard, they were quite a pair