Hunt # 94-with the pups!

Reilly, my puppy,  asking, "are we there yet?"  At least she's used to riding in the truck now- no slobbering anymore!

12 1/2 couple today- including the 2 couple of new entry hunting for their 4th time.  But this is the first hunt where all four pups hunted with all the other hounds. (Tommy's puppy, T-Bone hunted with the regular pack on April 1).

It was 47 degrees at 7:30, but the day was to warm up quickly to a forecast high of 74 ( it is 77 as I write this!). We wanted to get a short, tidy chase in , and be done before 11am.   But with Part Time and Marney out, along with new entry, I was ready for anything and cleared my schedule for the entire afternoon.
I should have more faith in our hounds, because before 10 am, we were seated in the restaurant ordering  our  post -hunt breakfast.

  We chose to go back to Taggler's Gate ( we are losing hunt country   because the farmers are getting into the fields in some places,and they have begun logging a large section of one of the state woods),.  We have found a fox there before that stays close, and runs large loops around the woods that encircle the gate and the dirt lane that leads up to it.  A good fox for our puppies to run, if we are lucky enough to find him.

Hounds were unkennelled at 7:35 and at 7:44, they opened on a nice, big red .   Just before we let the hounds out, we had  viewed about 10 deer leaving  the covert we planned to draw.  The fox must have moved the deer, and he moved out behind them. Our hounds had to trail him up, and it took a good 15 minutes from the time they began to trail until they really began to run. 

All of the puppies packed right up and went with the older hounds.  As soon as I i heard the first few notes of the strike hounds, I ran out of the covert and back to my hound truck.  We wanted to ride this pack tight today, and we had only 3 hound trucks. The wind was coming out of the north, and although it seemed calm, the road we needed to guard closely was upwind and ,therefore, hearing the pack wasn't easy. 

This fox was a road runner- he ran the paved road, which turns into a dirt road,  4 times.  Each time he did this,  the hounds would  check on the road giving Reynard a bigger lead.  At about 9:00,  he made his 3 rd trip down the road, running it about 100 yards.   It was the dirt portion, and we knew that the pack would have a hard time picking up the scent.  It was a good time to pick up the puppies. We positioned ourselves where the fox was viewed when he ducked back into the woods.  In the video , you'll see the hounds running right at the camera- we were all waiting so we could hold up the puppies and get them loaded.  They  had had 75 minutes' running, and the temperatures  were rising quickly. That was all they needed for this time out. All the pups had stayed with the pack, especially during the previous 2 checks in the road. They didnt know what  it was that  they were doing, but they were sure having a ton of fun doing it!!

You'll see the older  hounds having trouble finding  the line-mainly because Bobby mis-judged slightly where he saw the fox pop back into the covert.  But the hounds get it straightened out, and once they recover , the fox made one more big swing around Tagglers gate via the road (again!).  Tommy wanted to let them run, so we did not try to break them.  At 9:20, however,   the pack shut up cold behind the gate. Bobby and I ran the 100yards around the bend to find all the hounds on the edge of a wheat field.  The fox had gotten so far ahead of them by this time, that they just couldnt stay with him.   They were hot hounds, and there had been no water where they could refresh themselves with a drink during the chase. It didnt take much effort on our part to call them out to us.  By 9:30, all hounds were loaded and we were headed for breakfast.