I forgot to set my alarm clock, and had my neighbor not called me at 6:45am, I would have never gotten up in time to have the hounds loaded for our 7:15 departure from the farm. A quick call to Shirley and Barb let them know they had an extra 15 minutes, and I got the horses fed and the hounds loaded just as they arrived.
All three of us crammed into my l;ittle Ford Ranger (I got the back seat, if you can call it that!) and headed through some patchy fog to meet Bobby at the County HouseWoods at 8:15.
Sara, Reno, Reilly, Roscoe, M&M, Rebel & Raven comprised out littlepack. three of the puppies and four older hounds. We walked them into the woods at the crossroads, and in less than 3 minutes, old M&M began to tongue. Reno joined her, and although they never got close enough to this fox to really get running, hounds did a great job of trailing him persistently for 45 minutes. We called them out when we saw them getting into the thick, black mud of the swamp.
We only had Bobby's truck with us, as we positioned Shirley and Barb in mine on the other side of the covert -just in case! I walked the puppies out of the swamp while Bobby was getting in front of M&M, and to my utter surprise and joy Reilly was the first hound to jump up into his box. ( And it is a much higher jump into his truck than mine!) THAT alone made the morning worthwhile for me.
A great experience for the young hounds. Just wish we could have shown Barb a fox! Thanks, ladies, for helping us out!!
Now off to get a horse ridden before it gets any hotter!
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