Glad that's over...

Not the hunting part of the day,mind you.   In fact, I wish we could re-wind the day and get back to IT:

Hounds moved off at 5:50am on Sunday  - heavy rain was coming, and it wasnt very far away. In fact, it was raining lightly as we began the draw. As everywhere else on the east coast ,  temps nosed-dived from the 80's on Saturday to a cold, damp 52 degrees on Sunday . The mercury  hovered within 3 degrees of that mark all day.

12 couple began the morning, and were all on when they roused the first fox at 6:11am.  It was touch and go for the first 40 minutes- as it has been lately, thanks to the dry conditions. Hounds could smell and run for a minute or two, then a long check would follow.   But just when we figured our pilot had gone to ground, the pack would pick up the scent and run again.  At 6:45, they really got up on this fox, and were sounding great.  At 7:02, my cell phone rang:

He: "Get back here  NOW"
Me:"Why???"
He:  "Mel is colicking"

Sh*t.  I have some new hay that I began to incorporate the past couple of days so I was pretty certain  it was just a gas colic, but I  needed to get home and get some Banamine into him. So....

I left the covert with hounds, mine included, screaming within.  The balance of this hunt report is second hand news, but from a reliable source! (Bobby)

The fox went to ground about 5 minutes after I left.  Hounds were gathered and moved to another area to draw .  All but Bobby's puppy, Rebel, were at the hole when the hounds were gathered. He loaded his and mine into his hound truck and set off to walk the woods to find Rebel. It hadnt occurred to me to leave my horn with him- thank goodness all my bitches were right there, and now safely in Bobby's hound truck  as he went in search of the puppy.  I know that if Rebel had heard the horn, he would have come to it  from wherever he had drifted.  But - Bobby was left to scour the covert for his pup while Jim and Freddy enjoyed a very nice chase, including a long run over the open and happening  only a short distance away. Bobby could hear their hounds as he looked for Rebel. O my, I am just glad it was HIS pup and not mine!

 Long story short- Bobby never did turn out again.  I met him halfway after they were done, and got my hounds back.  Later that afternoon, when the Banamine wore off, Mel was still in trouble, and i spent the rest of the afternoon and all night Sunday night nursing the patient.  He's fine today (Monday),however, we are both  a bit sleep deprived . Yawn.......