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| A road-killed young dog fox we encountered on Shepherd Rd. Sadly,this is a frequent occurrence this time of year as the young dog foxes strike out from home to find their own territory. |
At 4:40, hounds were put into the cornfield under another moonless, but very clear and starry night. It was 52 degrees, but the temps dropped another 5 degrees before the dawn, and this was the first time this season I felt a bit cold . I'm not complaining!!!
At 5:12, the pack found Charles lurking around the corn on the little branch side of the dirt lane. ("Georges Branch has two sections, the "little branch"and the "big branch", separated by the cornfield-flanked dirt lane and the "overgoin"). All hounds save for Bobby's Rebel settled in behind their pilot as he ran back and forth between the two stands of corn. At about the 30-minute mark, I got a strong wiff of the perfume of a skunk near the lane. Hounds were, at the time, running about 1/2 mile away. The odor disseminated, and for about 10 minutes, we forgot about it as we continued to listen to the pack roaring behind their fox. Then at about 5:50, there was a sudden check deep within the corn lasting long enough that Freddy assumed that the fox had gone to ground and he began calling his hounds back. However, just as his hounds began to tumble out into the lane a hound still in the corn began to tongue, honored quickly by several others. In seconds, Bobby's and my hounds were running again. "That squeaky note hound must be running the fox back (heel) ", said Freddy. He barely got the words out of his mouth when we heard him holler- his hounds had been sprayed by the skunk I had smelled earlier!
Our pilot had NOT gone to ground. However, this skunk had succeeded in busting up the pack and causing a check. The stench coming from the back of Freddy's hound truck was overpowering and he wasted no time turning his hounds back out. I guess he either realized our hounds were right, or he just didnt care, lol!
(Guess who the "squeaky note",RIGHT hound was??!) This is gonna be Marney's year to shine!
The chase resumed, with Charles continuing his long loops through both stands of the corn. At 6am, Jeff arrived from NJ with 3 couple of hounds that were about to have their first chase of the season. Fresh hounds were turned out behind ours, which had now been running for close to an hour. No worries!
A brief split occurred at 6:10- with some hounds, including Bobby's pup Raven, heading to the overgoin while the main pack ran the little branch the other way. I dont think there were two foxes-I think some overly excited hounds just got off course briefly, because before Bobby and I could get to the overgoin we could see the errant hounds harking back to the others. We watched as Raven FLEW past us on his way back to the action. He got fooled- but only briefly. ( btw, Rebel did hark, after about the first 1/2 hour).
The pilot changed course f or the last hour. Was it to avoid the skunk, or because he had more hounds on his brush?! He crossed from the little branch into the big branch, but on the far side of the overgoin-the first time he had done that. After that, he ran the bottom of the branch for awhile and then popped out the east side of the woods and into a new stand of corn adjacent to Georges' Pond.
The sun was peeking above the horizon now, and it was nearing the two-hour mark for the hounds which had jumped this fox. A decision was made to break the pack before Charles took them back down into the swampy bottom of the branch again. Bobby and I got to them just as the hounds were breaking out of the cornfield at the pond It was 7:05 All of our hounds were up front, and loaded into our trucks by 7:06!!
Freddy, Jim and Jeff arrived within seconds, but Travis ( notorious for being impossible to break) got around them and dragged about 2 more couple with him. O my..... Bobby and I ran into town to get coffee for the others. By the time we returned, all hounds had been accounted for.
O - and NONE of our hounds had been "skunked"!!!
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