and better as the day went on.

Dixie, Sugar, Julie, and Maizey were timid most of the morning. That was probably due to not only Brag and I still being new to them, but now they had to contend with a new pack of both humans and dogs. We turned them out with Cuz’s two dogs, Little Girl and Judy, the Grande Dame of what passes for our pack of dogs and Dusty’s , Lady. They nosed around in the planted pines and began trailing. Judy and the new dogs were silent. Only Lady and Little Girl gave voice. Soon the pace picked up and Lady and Little Girl began to run hot, trailing Judy and pups behind.
Deer! Judy and the pup‘s stopped and came back to begin looking for rabbits. Totally uninterested in the deer or the pursuing Lady and Little Girl. They had many opportunities to in the course of the day. There were deer everywhere, but each time they showed zero interest. Brag and I have crossed fingers that they never do. Judy, of course would never even entertain the thought of running anything but a rabbit. She is one of the last greats that Uncle NoPass had. And like so many of his dogs-admire it and he would give it to you….if he took a liking to you.

Except for passing on the deer, nothing else seemed to go right that morning. We couldn’t even have bought a rabbit. The pups stayed under our feet even when Judy finally found a rabbit to run. At one point they were running up and down a firebreak road looking off in Judy and the rabbits direction. Finally, Dixie raced into the overgrown clearcut to help. The rabbit crossed the road and Rye got him. Maizey ran up to the dead rabbit and began smelling it. She then grabbed it growling and shaking her head. We took the rabbit from her and let the pup’s take a smell and then we headed for the truck and a quick lunch. And to see if Little Girl and Lady had returned. Nope.

After lunch, it was one rabbit after the other. The dogs came when called after we jumped a rabbit. They jumped and ran their own rabbits. They cold trailed lead by Judy. Overall, they showed a lot of promise. They are still skittish but coming around. This weekend is the Brown Road hunt. One year we killed 18 rabbits in front of one dog, Judy. They’ll get a workout and we still have a week and half before deciding if we’ll keep them although I think we will.

Lady and Little Girl turn up this morning. Cuz got a call at one thirty in the morning from someone who said they had found a dog with his name on the collar and was there a reward. Cuz exploded “A reward for finding a rabbit dog that ran deer. Hell, Lady just keep the dog.” That probably explains that when the wayward dogs turned up today, Little Girl was a few miles down the road walking towards the Gray place thumbing a ride while Lady was setting on the front porch of the house at the Gray place.