LEB CITY BEAGLES PRESENTS... THE NEW GUN IN TOWN

JOSHUA RANDALL At the ripe old age of eleven years young makes his debut amongst our "PACK" of hunters. "JOSH" gets good grades in school, is active in our our Church, and is a clean cut young fellow. See the photo of the newcomer watching for Mr. bunny to come by out of the maze of bushes covered with snow. Cute little bugger isn't he. Another 7-8 years or so this little guy is a man, and who knows what the LORD has in store for him. He's got his little head screwed on straight right now, and I fully expect that he will grow up one day and make a difference, for his Church, for his Community and for his Country!

January 7, 2006.....I picked up "Josh" at his home at 8 A.M. as scheduled and with Christopher riding shotgun, the three of us headed to Reggies house under clear skies and 14 degree temperatures. We had a two day old snow of about four inches covering a hard crusty surface that had another eight inches of snow under it.
As father time sets his grip around Reggie and I, we always seem to hit the woods about two hours later than what we once used to a couple decades ago. They call us "AARPS"'s now!
After arriving at Reggie's and chewing the fat and hitting a cup of coffee or two into oblivion, we finally got out of the house and under some trees, lots of trees. We had four hounds today; Sophie, Ruth, Timmy, and Pete. At Nine fifteen Pete opened up on a line and we were under way. The snows we got a few days ago came without any wind and actually got a bit sticky to some degree. The net result of that was the trees were still heavy laden with snow on them and the conifers were murder to see in.
The hounds packed up well and ran as a unit just the way its suppose to be done. Scenting was much better than it had been for a while and the slow deliberate pace that Sophie ran on the other day, had now been turned into a driving affair, as she and Ruth were putting the screws to "Bre'r Rabbit". Tim and Pete were packed in close to the younger snappy females.
I high tailed it through the woods with "Josh" in tow at a pretty good pace, as I headed for a well known crossing where the lad might get a whack at the rabbit. I told him to step exactly where I stepped 'cause there was thin ice in some places and he had short boots on. Wet feet and his day is over. Josh stayed with me pretty well and we finally set up for the ambush. Round and Round the hounds went, steady and with some authority. Here they come and we were ready! Closer and closer they got, then gradually they curved away in another direction. Reggie calls on the radio saying he saw the hare but it slipped by him. We're well into the best part of an hour now and once again the hounds are getting closer. Josh says "there's a dog, NO its a rabbit" and sure enough the hare runs by both of us just a tad too far in poor visibility to get off a shot. He did good just seeing the hare trying to sneak by us even though he did get a WWEEEeeee bit excited . The minutes tick off some more, then at the one hour and fifty minute mark we heard a muffled shot ring out and then followed by a faint sounding hoot from Christopher signaling he had killed the bunny. Sound doesn't carry well in this kind of cover. A while later Chris makes his way out to the spot where Reggie, Josh and I were rehashing the run. Christopher couldn't wait to show Josh what a dead one looks like, and took over the role of instructor, a position normally reserved for us senior citizens. They sometime call us "AARPS").
As we stood there the four of us jawing over this last run, Ruth hits a hot track way off in the distance and we have another drive going. This run would proceed just about the same as the last one. Pretty steady with not many breakdowns, round and round. The hare got by all of us a time or two without being seen and eventually Reggie caught a glimpse of the thing but couldn't get off a shot. Josh and I changed positions a number of times until finally I found a spot I liked and we waited, and we waited, and we waited some more. All of a sudden I see the hare running hard about thirty yards away and I figured the kid couldn't make this shot so I fired. CLEAN MISS! But the shot caught the rabbit by surprise and must've startled him a bit 'cause he stopped running. That was a mistake as Josh let fly a load on #4's out of the .410 and dumped him in a heap. Josh was some happy as he let out a HOOT or two of his own and couldn't believe he shot the thing. FIRST HUNT, FIRST SHOT, FIRST BUNNY! Great job.
We got another run going and this time the bunny won as he never offered us a shot though he was seen several times. This hare ran in a marsh swamp where there was alot of ice and never changed his pattern. It was a bad place to maneuver in because of the thin ice and one miss step would have you up to your hips in muck. Josh and I worked our way around the bog and when we had a chance to catch the dogs we did and finished the day with a great hunt. Kinda fun with the little kid hunting with us. Its not easy the way we do it but sure is fun!

January 11, 2006......Got Bruno in the truck this morning for a hunt on a thin crust and temperatures slated to hit up into the forties by afternoon.Reggie brought PETE so we anticipated a pretty good hunt! WRONG!!! Dogs ran poorly for the most part. Early on Bruno did some cold trailing and Pete basically ignored him. Eventually Pete hit one several hundred yards to our left and Bruno kept cold trailing to the right. As time passed both dogs moved further and further apart. Reggie headed to Pete and I went with Bruno. Finally Bruno got his moving with limited authority and eventually fell into a picky, picky, run drop affair. I moved in to catch him then called Reggie to see what Pete was doing and the report was that he had lost his rabbit. I moved Bruno toward the area Pete was in and recast Bruno. In a few minutes he starts tongueing around some more with little progess getting achieved. But all of a sudden a rabbit runs by me coming from Bruno's direction so I call Bruno over as he was not far away as I figured that getting hot on the track would break the pattern and get a hunt rolling. He comes over and takes off on the line with some difficulty and moves it about thirty yards to a check. He finds it again and moves the line another thirty yards or so to another longer check. Eventually the run dies. VERY VERY uncommon for this dog NOT to be able to carry a line such as this. I call Pete and Bruno and work them to where I thought the rabbit went and some hundred yards or so the dogs lift a line. They work together and run this rabbit fairly well for over an hour with authority at times and slow picky moving at other times. Then a shot rings out KAPooooooWWWW, Reggie blasts the rabbit about 300 yards ahead of the dogs. They eventually make their way to the dead rabbit and we work the dog for another run. By now it's about 35-40 degrees out I guess and you'd think that the running would be better. Pete hits a new rabbit and they run this one pretty steady for one big circle for about thirty minutes to a DEAD loss. A DEAD loss without another bark. They hunt for a long time and can't lift the track so we quit. So it goes in this part of the world on ever changing snow conditions. As Arnold Schwatsneggar said "I'll be back".

January 16, 2006....The kids are out of school today so I'll do some baby sitting in the woods with five of them. An eleven year old, a twelve, two fourteens and one sixty four year old. Actually the kids do pretty good with only Joshua the eleven year old, being new to our form of hare hunting. It is real cold this morning being zero degrees when we got up and warmed to only five degrees when we reached Reggie's house at 8:30 A.M. We have a day old snow, textured like sugar, and the dew point is 10 which is very very dry. Also to make matters worse a wind blows steadily, making the cold feel even colder and the scenting that much the more difficult.
WE have two bitches and two dogs today; Sophie, Ruth, Timmy and Pete.It takes a while to get the crew out of the warmth of Reggie's house and into the woods, but eventually the dogs get collared and cast afield. In a few minutes they start working some night lines and get a bit of a picky run going with limited success. I hear Ruth off by herself doing a cold trailing thing and eventually she is going a bit better, but nobody is honoring her???? I have Daniel and Joshua with me and tell them to hold their stands, which are about forty yards apart, while I go check what Ruth is doing. TOO LATE as she has crossed a small frozen over brook that I can't traverse due to the thin ice, so she gets off too far to call because of the wind. I also discovered by the tracks that she was trailing a COYOTO. OH BOY! This should be fun. Reggie gets the kids corraled after they unload the guns and we're all off DOG HUNTING. Sophie and Timmy wouldn't go with Ruth, but Pete did relunctedly as he never barked. David and Christopher ran up the road we came in on and I had doubled back and crossed a bridge that put me on the same side the dogs were on. I used my TRACKER tracking device to keep tabs of where the dogs were, and with the help of the two way radios we carry, was able to direct "THE FORCE" in the direction the two dogs had taken. FINALLY two and a half hours after the ordeal began, I caught Ruth after she had crossed the road again a long way from where we started, but no Pete. As it turned out he made his way back toward us on his own and ran into Reggie. Now we have a long long walk back to the truck. I believe that the chase after the dogs knocked the stuffing out of Joshua the youngster in the group, as it was indeed a hard physical ordeal. But the little guy never complained, but I could tell he was spent. One thing that did not help Joshua today was the fact that he did NOT have a belt to hold up his pants. Did you ever try to run down a dog through the woods, that was chasing a coyoto for miles, WITHOUT something holding up your pants! NOT EASY! See the rope tied around his torso in the picture. This rope is for leashing a dog in case of an emergency, but the only emergency in Joshua's world this day was holding up his britches.
We regroup with Ruth in the truck and try to get at least a short hunt for the kids. David and Christopher worked the dogs into the cover and Reggie and I (AARP'S) tend to Daniel and Joshua. Sophie starts a bit of trailing off and on and pretty soon Tim is in with her and later, Pete joins in. It's still very cold and the wind blows. After a fashion the dogs are going with some authority and two quick shots erupt through the noisy wind, POW-POW. The hunt continues! I station Daniel in a good spot and separate from him a bit along with Joshua, to another good spot. I tell Josh to pay attention as the hunt was moving our way and with that said the bunny goes by the both of us with NO shoots fired. Because of the four kids, I had decided not to carry a gun and would leave the shooting to Joshua and Daniel who were with me. But Joshua was a bit toooooo slooooow and the bunny got by. HEY! I was a kid once and I know how hard it is when your just a kid! BUT WHAM the other .410 went off as Daniel got a whack at the bunny, but the WASCALLY WABBIT got away from this young nimrod too. But he didn't get away from the dogs though, as they continued to do excellent work in a very uncomfortable outdoors. A few minutes go by and Reggie calls to report that the WASCALLY WABBIT just got by him. Ten minutes later David calls to say he saw the WABBIT "flying". In kid talk that means the WABBIT ran by David too fast to get a shot off. The hounds continue to drive and now they are turning back again. KAPOW-KAPOW two more quick shots ring out and the hunt continues. Christopher registers two more missed shots. "Hey JOSHUA pay attention" I say!!!! And the bunny runs right by us once again and the lad was not prepared. I know he was cold and he was uncomfortable and alertness and readiness were no longer present. Who cares...he's a kid learning his craft. The hounds come by grouped up well and the hunt moves afar when suddenly two more shots ring out. I hear the sixty four year old hoot as the WASCALLY WABBIT was announced as DEAD! We caught the hounds and headed for the hot dog stand and the kids were ready for that. TOUGH TOUGH day physically but we got through it OK and the boys will have a story to remember for Lord knows how long, maybe FOREVER!!!!!

January 19, 2006.....Yesterday we got pelted all day with torrential rains and very high winds. We had gusts of wind to 60 MPH and most of the surrounding areas lost power for hours. The rains stopped in the early evening, but the winds continued throughout the night and the temperature dropped into the low twenties. Needless to say when dawn broke everything was frozen solid and the winds continued to howl. It was thirty degrees out, which isn't bad, but the land was just solidly frozen and windswept dry as a bone. We planned on hunting just Bruno this morning Reggie and I, and decided to try out a new place we discovered during our DOG HUNT the other day??? The wind was steady between 20-30 MPH with gusts much higher than that. We arrived at our hunt site around 9:30 A.M., got our gear, and started a fairly long walk down a tote road to where we would cast the critter. The road pitched at a downward angle of about five degrees and let me tell you it was slippery. Bruno's tugging on the leash and I'm being pulled down hill a good part of the time. Then it happened! Down I went, sprawled out on my back and just barely saved my shotgun from getting smashed on the concrete like ice. I got up and walked along the edge of the woods along the road after that! I cast the hound, then "REG" and I waited in the road as the hound hunted hard and eventually started his cold trailing routine. His big nose canvases the woodlot here and there and these antics generally end up with a rabbit out of his lair and on the go. Today would be no exception to what is generally the rule with this dog. BUT THE WIND CONTINUED and was horrible to hear in. Given that this was a new cover for us to hunt, we didn't know just where to stand so we let the hunt take it's course for a while, until we figured out how to get this bunny headed to the crock pot. Much of the time we couldn't hear the dog with the wind and the many hills and dales in this particular place. A number of times I put the tracking device on him to get a hint of where he might be. Reggie knows how to position himself for a kill after doing this all his life, and I do too. We spent a half hour or so working ourselves in the cover to the best spot we had figured out and waited. Pretty soon I hear the dog coming my way and make ready, only to have him slip by a distance away. A few minutes later Reggie calls to say the rabbit got by him too. The dog had a hard time pushing the line in places, where it was all ice and the swirling wind was a great hindrance to boot. No sense moving because the wind made it impossible to cut, so I just waited where the hare got by me earlier and hoped for the best. Reggie did the same thing too as it turned out, and our approach to getting quadrupeds dead are pretty much the same. It took a while before I heard something but the wind, as Reggie calls on the two way to say he can hear the dog coming. Just about that same time I see the rabbit swing by me going right to left so I crank out a shot, then follow with another shot as the bunny goes out of sight. I swear the rabbit heard the radio go off just as it was approaching me??? Bad timing with the radio transmission and a CLEAN MISS by me. Bruno comes through on the line in a few minutes and heads toward Reggie. Twenty minutes later Reggie calls to say that the rabbit crossed the road we walked on. Not uncommon for a bunny to change his pattern after being shot at. Christopher has a basketball game later this afternoon so I tell Reggie to catch Bruno if he could so I could make the game. We got another good time today and got ZERO bunnies but at least a pretty good run in a tough condition. The dog had a good outing and we found a new cover to hunt. ONE OF THESE DAY--ONE OF THESE DAYS, the conditions will be in our favor and the bunnies shall die.

January 21, 2006.........Christopher and I hit the trail at 7:45 and headed out to snag Joshua along the way for another Saturday hunt. In the truck heading for Reggie's were the hounds Sophie and Timmy. We've had some very unique weather lately. Heavy rains with forty degree temps with extremely high winds, then with night time temperatures dropping into the low twenties, followed by unseasonably day time highs in the forties the following day. When we got to Reggies the nightime lows were in the high twenties but heading higher according to forecast. The grounds were frozen but would thaw, so all we needed now was some luck finding bunnies. They aren't exactly thick in these parts but usually we find enough to hunt. Sorta!
Oh ya when we got to Reggies house I noticed that I didn't bring a gun for Joshua so he'd have to suck it up today ad use a bit bigger thunder stick, Reggie's single shot 20. The only difference between this 20 and the .410 he's been using, is the length of the stock, as the .410 is cut down for the kids. Oh well better than throwing snow balls at the fur balls. Off we go the four of us and the three dogs, Sophie, Timmy, and Pete. We get geared up, dogs collared and in the woods we go. Joshua and I strike off together and Christopher and Reggie head for some good stands. We cast the 3 dogs and it's silence for a long time. After quite a long time Sophie starts doing some cold trailing and occasionally Pete and Tim give a bark or two of their own. But this is basically a Sophie performance. Back and forth she works some old night lines and Pete chimes in a bit supporting her efforts, but still no jumped bunny. Ten minutes or so later Tim and Pete do a bit more tongueing along with Sophie as the line gets warmer but not hot. YET! They swing by Reggie and move a line by him fifty yards or so then swing back in the same direction they came from. Reggie calls to tell me what he saw and said he figured the dogs were screwy until a half a minute later they put the rabbit out of a squat and push it right by him. He let the bunny go in favor of getting a run for a while, then later called to say the hare had crossed a tote road. They are just about out of hearing now so Joshua and I head for the hills and pick up Christopher along the way. Christopher can move faster than I can with Joshua in tow, so I tell him to move out double time for the road to set up for a shot. Usually the hare will circle out there a few times but normally heads back to this side; sooner or later. I told Joshua that we would take a stand on this side of the road afterall since the rabbit can easily scoot by the hunters on the road because they cross pretty fast coming back. We would be their back up????
In a while we can hear the hounds coming back and indeed true to form they were pushing straight for the road. Christopher calls to tip us off that the hare crossed the road but too fast to get off a shot. Joshua and I are on point and ready to "let 'er rip" when the occasion availed itself! In a twinkling of an eye "brer rabbit" is "trucking" our way about twenty yards out broadside! As I pull up on him the bunny stops dead for a wide open shot. I wait for "Josh" to "trigger" the bunny but no shot. A few seconds seem like a long time and pretty soon Mr. Bunny will be off at max. speed. Shoot! I tell Joshua SHOOT and KKKKkaaaaaPOW his twenty goes off and so does the bunny, but not before I let out 3 volleys of my own out of the Browning. Right off I saw that Joshua had the hit the hare with his shot as a hind foot dangled just before I let go my barrage. The dogs were coming fast and I knew they'd catch the bunny, so I put my gun up against a tree and followed the hounds as fast as I could. A hundred and fifty yards out, the hunt shut down without even a wimper. I kept charging straight at the dogs and could hear the bell I had on Sophie. I get close to her and then see Timmy with his two front feet on the hare helping himself to Joshua's bunny. Tim "The Toolman" as we call him was just getting a snack after the pretty good run.
In a short time Sophie is again doing some picking here and there in the vicinity where they had just run. Reggie and I figure she was popping on some of the old lines but ONCE AGAIN she prooved herself right as Pete gets in with her and then Timmy. After the kill Joshua and I walked out to the road where Reggie and Christopher were. I tell "Josh" to hang the partially dressed bunny in a tree so we wouldn't have to carry it around. We threw the "Bull" for a while and listened to the hounds run steady on some pretty tough ice and frozen snow. After fifteen minutes or so we decide who's gonna stand where and then we dispersed to our selected stands. Joshua and I would go deep, Reggie would go part way to a proven crossing and Cristopher opted to cover the road, in case the hare came back. In another fifteen minutes or so we get positioned OK and I have Joshua on a good crossing. I stand just out of sight from him so I could cover a different section, and the hounds go round and round. A while later they're heading our way and were at "G-Q", ready to rumble. Without warning I hear just a little bit of noise in front of me and figure it's the bunny, so I start to lift the shotgun. Then he's right in front off me in high gear crossing a small path we've cut out over the years. You never heard two quicker shots come out of any Browning in your life. Pow-pow! That fast and it was over. DEEAAD BUNNY!
We didn't want to shoot any more rabbits in this place so we went to our famous Hot Dog stand for a snack of our own. We tried another spot later but couldn't get a start. Once again the FRUITS OF OUR LABORS were realized; a lot of FUN, the only thing that counts!

January 25, 2006.......This would be A DAY TO FORGET!! Took Bruno alone with Reggie today to hit the same woods we had him in last week in the wind storm. It snowed two days ago, in a way where it stuck to the trees wicked bad. No wind since then to shake off some of the snow, but instead we got another inch and a half early this morning, some time after midnight to add to the dilema. The place we would hunt was ALL SCRUB OAKS. Now scrub oaks are a short bushy like tree, that have branches really thick and as tough as barbed wire, and on a good day tough to get through. We could see indentations in the snow walking in, of old rabbit tracks that were partially covered over by this late night snowfall. Let Bruno go and in a few minutes we heard him go and out of hearing. We couldn't see a thing and hearing was equally impaired. He came our way with some authority and soon was out of hearing again. I walked in to cut his track to check out what he was up to and only could make out old tracks partially covered. Twenty minutes later Reggie called to say that the dog crossed the road in front of him and he was still pounding these old partially covered lines. I've seen some of these big nosed dogs in the past do this same thing in these conditions and it drives you nuts. There weren't a lot of hare here, in fact not a lot of hare anywhere around where we live. I cut to the road and couldn't hear a thing so I got a read on his collar with my tracking device and cut to him through the blanket of snow suspended in the air by every branch or twig in the woods. YUK!! DOUBLE YUK!!! Half an hour later he still hadn't jumped a bunny, but he's still doing some mouthing around on old lines. I called him over, leashed him up and took a compass reading. Lets see; put the compass with the red in the shed and follow the red arrow, or was it the white arrow???? Needless to say I had an AARP cramp and followed the direction layed out by the wrong arrow. Fifteen minutes later I came out in a road 180 degrees wrong. No way was I going to walk back through the woods the way I went in, so I just walked all around the area on an old tote road to where I began. With the dog pulling on me I only fell down twice on the real slippery ice underneath. A hellish day in the woods and one I want to forget!!!! But probably won't for a while!

January 28, 2006......It's pretty nice out today with a clear sky and an air temperature at twenty six degrees. Always something though as the wind is blowing pretty steady at about 20 MPH...It's gonna be Josh, Danny, Reggie, Ken and myself today. David is sick with the flu and Christopher is going to see a college basketball game with his Junior high team. We have the dogs Pete,Jazzie, Timmy, and last but not least Sophie. Sophie was bred in early December but isn't showing much. I figure she's bred but if so, she won't have many. Either way this will be her last trip to the woods until we pass the due date which is 8 days away.
We get to Reggie's and HAVE to suck up a coffee or two. Eventually we find the woods; ya man! We're gonna hunt a place we hunted but a week ago and couldn't get a start. We know there are bunnies here but the last time we just didn't have any luck. We walk the hounds into the cover and cast them. The two kids go with me where I can set them up on a good stand ASAP. As they get set up the dogs open in unison and we're off. We got a soft snow just about five days ago and except for the wind it looks like an ideal day. The dogs make a couple loops and the hare sneaks by Kenny and Reggie a time or two and now heads for the kids. At the angle they're going now it sounds like Joshua is the chosen one to see the hare, but they get by him just barely too far for him to get a look at the hare. Straight away they go and out of hearing. I call the guys on the radio and we regroup. During this regrouping of the hunters I saw a stray bunny run by me and marked the spot should we need a run later.
Can't hear the dogs at all now, but we continue to move in their direction. After a quarter of a mile walk, we can barely hear them and they sounded like they were coming back. The Wascally Wabbit decided to stretch his legs in some open hardwood interspersed with little patches of pines here and there. Not a good place for a bunnies health running in an area such as that. The dogs pounded nonstop. I found the place where the hare left the swamp heading to the hardwoods so I set up Joshua in this spot because it's not at all uncommon for the hare to go back where he came from, via the same crossing. They ran a pretty long time in the open woods and I too found a place where he had crossed a couple times already. Out of hearing they went once again, but soon were coming back. I figured the thing right as the hare was coming my way following the pattern he had been making. Problem with this open shooting is that you're apt to shoot too soon as the bunny comes into view at a long distance. Well there he is, around fifty yards away at a somewhat broadside angle. When he got about as close as he was going to be from me, which was a good forty yards out there, I cut loose. Pow..Pow...Pow and he kept going but appeared hit. I hollered to Joshua to watch it and the kid is looking at me from sixty yards away. I holler LOOK TO YOUR LEFT...LOOK LEFT... With that said I see him pick up the single 20 and KaWhoooom he shoots at the rabbit right from where I had placed him on that crossing. But the hounds pound on by bunched up tighter than a drum. A few minutes pass and a dead loss. Oh Oh!! Better track 'em down. I cut their track and follow them. In a few minutes I see Pete just walking around then Jazzie then Sophie!!! No "Toolman"! I walk around the area a bit and see the dog finishing up a choice serving of fresh bunny. Timmy get over here I commanded, and then leashed him up. I get what's left of the rabbit and hang it in a tree.
During the run the dogs pushed another hare out of the cover and Reggie saw it's track so we worked the dogs in that direction. Jazzie was the first one up to Reggie and got that line going before the others got there and off we go once again.
This bunny would prove to be a heck of a runner. Up down and all around the high ground he went and never gave us a look. After a long while he cut out of that hardwood and headed to a swamp on the edge of a pond that had over flowed with all the rains of the weeks past. There was this big, thick, alder run with patches of pine and fir trees wrapped up by a lot of marsh grass. The snows were covering some ice that we couldn't walk on without breaking through, so cutting around in there was an issue. As we cut to the swamp where the dogs were, I positioned Joshua on a good crossing on the edge of the thicket and Danny eventually got into the thicket about 30 yards of its edge. Round and round they went. After a long time Ken had managed to get himself into the maze quite a ways in and Reggie found a little hilly spot in there that offered him a pretty good view. Around they went some more. Pow-Pow, Kenny cut loose but the hunt continued. A while later Wham-Wham, Reggie cut loose. The runs continue with music filling the air and every once in a while you'd hear a shot, then another shot then a couple more shots. I get on the phone and say "LISTEN YOU GUYS! YOU ARE ALL GOING TO THE SHOOTING RANGE WHEN WE"RE OUT A HERE"! Back behind us a bit Wham Joshua shoots and as it turned out killed a stray bunny that was trying to sneak out from all the commotion. At least theres one guy who can shoot. Maybe the elenven rear old will give shooting lessons?
Now the dogs are still running the bunny that so far had cost us about five pounds of lead. I call Joshua to follow our tracks so I could set him closer to us to help add some coverage closer to where the rabbit kept going. Reggie fires two more times at the bunny and the hounds keep going. POW.POW...POW..POW Danny cuts loose with the .410 pump and actually kills the bunny. Hurray! At we have two shooters in the group, one an eleven year old the other twelve. Reggie comes over to see what a dead bunny looks like and he and Danny talk. Danny takes a few steps out of the swamp and jumps another bunny that was squatted right near him during while all this run and gun stuff was going on. We put the hounds on this bunny and a while later Joshua manages to get off a shot but now he's MISSING TOO! That's OK. Heck everybody else was missing. This place was tough to hunt and when they circled around we decided to catch them and head back towards the truck and try to find the stray that I had seen earlier in morning.
We take the long walk to where I had seen this bunny earlier in the day but at least we're closer to the truck. We reach the spot where I saw the bunny earlier and cut the dogs loose. Sophie is a terrific hunter and if anybody could find this hare that I'd seen 5 hours ago, it was her. All the dogs got out into the puckka brush and not a sound. Ten minutes pass and Sophie does a bit of barking here and there and here and there. A long pause and a bit more out of her but nobody helps out. Before long she's barking a bit better and Jazzie joins in and they jump the hare. Steady they go and the two males are coming to help out. Timmy is ten years old and Pete is a month shy of twelve. Pretty soon they're together and sounding good but far out in the boggy stuff. Danny is in a good spot and so isn't Joshua. In about twenty minutes they're pushing toward Danny but the hunt swings back toward Joshua and me. I catch a glimpse of the hare and warn Joshua to stay alert. Pretty soon it's a big loud POoowww. As Joshua cuts looose. Hey did you get him. A little feeble sounding voice reports nooo. So I go over to see the boy and ask where was the rabbit when you shot. HHmmmmm "looks like a ten footer to me Josh". "Pretty close HUH" I said! "Ya" Joshua replies. Them close ones are tough shots. I move away from him so I could cover a bit more ground and the dogs are running really well. I get a break and drill the fur ball in a heap and we call it a day. Time to head for the hot dog stand. At least today we will have killed just about as many bunnies as we will HOT DOGS! When we get to the store I always tell the kids that "THEY DON'T HAVE TO GET A HOT DOG AND A DRINK"! "They can stay in the truck all alone if they wish". So far, the boys have killed a lot of HOT DOGS!

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