11 couple went into the woods behind Tommy's kennel at 8am, and within a couple of minutes Radio ( who is looking incredibly well after being treated for a systemic fungal infection) began to wind. At 8:06, his voice boomed out : "GOT IT!" and next we heard young Pearl's squeaky voice : " Yes, Here it is!". The others harked and off they went on a very large and very fast running red fox. This fellow showed great sport for an hour and 15 minutes, and I got several good views of him, even managing to get him with the Nikon a couple of times.. He ran the woods most of the time, but at about the 50 minute mark, he busted out across a very large field, running under the irrigation pipes for a good 1/2 mile. Back into the woods he went, behind Tommy's house, and then 10 minutes later he came right back out into the field, right behind my hound truck. He was moving much slower now- that open running, with the warming temps must have really taken it out of him. I saw his tongue hanging as he ran at a much slower gait. He got himself back into the woods and at around 9:25 hounds made their first check . It lasted for only about 60 seconds. As they began to tongue again, I glimpsed a view of a fox cross the ditch I was standing near. He was FLYING. I knew right away that this fox was not the same fox the hounds had been chasing. There had been a tag-team switch in the woods, and I was kind of glad because I saw up close how fast that first fox was sinking. (O, you Brits-I know what you are thinking! But the sport is so very different here!)
The new pilot took off through the woods, heading west. He then made a quick turn south, broke covert briefly, and then ducked back into the woods and went to ground. His half of the relay lasted only 20 minutes. By 10am, we had all hounds loaded. And it was a good thing, because the temperature had risen from 42 F at 7:20, to 73 degrees 11am. A 30 degree rise in under 4 hours. Phew! No wonder the second fox didnt stay up for very long!
A good chase on a very game fox. 'Hope we get another chance at him before the season closes.
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