The Bridle Path.

[comanche 3,076]

Ok . Sorry about this . Its a long post but I'm stuck here waiting for workmen to turn up between 1pm and 6pm so I'm amusing myself .

 

Last Thursday night I replaced a few layers of remedial sticky-tape on my ancient lamp whilst its attendant battery buzzed away on a refresher cycle before heading for a local livery yard accompanied by my youngest dog.It was a cloudy ,windy night.Perfect conditions according to the gurus of the game to start a novice dog on the road to a lifetime of bunny bedazzlement . It was also very cold .

 

This introduction to the joys of "frozen finger switch flicking" was also to double as a scouting expedition.I was interested to see just how many naughty rabbits were still using the paddocks for their nocturnal frolicking despite the hours of ferreting I'd expended over the past few months . The answer was very few .In fact I only saw half a dozen of the little blighters and all but one made for a bank that bordered a bridle path on the extremity of the land.

The dog had a two runs on rabbits that were kind enought to allow a fairly close approach before skipping for home . The little dog latched onto their vapour trails but was completely unprepared for the capability for gear-dropping and booster- engaging acceleration that a rabbit close to the jaws of death inconveniently tends to summon. An experienced dog would have caught the third rabbit. It ran a few yards and tried to hide under a horse trough . The baby dog was on it quick enough but I wasn't too surprised when ,as he turned to carry it back to me ,the rabbit wriggled free and despite being bowled over again by my enthusiastic but rather soft-mouthed and youthfull canine it made cover .

The next day I decided to tackle these last few hold-out rabbits .I knew it would be hard going but their fortress needed assailing before they were infected by the joys of spring and multiplied to send forth a ravening horde of long-eared, grass-gobbling bandits in time for the summer season . I also felt that my dog deserved a chance to settle a score or two!.

 

There was no real need to loose the dog to find a mark as it was obvious the burrow system was occupied but I let him hunt ahead until with a fixed stare and wagging tail he came to rest outside one of the hundred or more holes that peppered the ridge. Apart from a tricky thorny patch halfway along the bank the holes were easily accessable. The 100 purse nets I'd brought with me were not quite enough but by slinging 70 yards of lazy-mesh along the bridle path ,up the bank and into the field to form a tight horse-shoe I managed to cover the obvious escape routes .

Starting at one end I entered a very elderly but capable old white jill and her great-grandaughter .It was a big burrow for just two ferrets but being alone I wanted to work it slowly rather than have too much action to deal with at one time .

 

Squatting well back from the holes but with a view the length of lower slope of the burrow I kept an eye on the dog who was sitting higher up the bank in a position that allowed him to cover any action in the field . It wasn't long before his ears twitched erect and his whole body ,though still rooted to the spot,began to vibrate with excitement. I poked my head up and saw that a rabbit had partially emerged from a burrow and was sniffing the air. After what seemed like an age it flopped forward and became entangled in the purse-net . Number one bunny was in the bag . Number two quickly followed and paid the same ultimate price as the first . Number three bunny ,however was made of sterner stuff . It threw a purse-net but with the dog driving hard on its heels and a long-net ahead the roll of the dice still seemed to favour the stew pot . Oh no. It was not to be, for this was Superbunny !. It broke back towards the awkward thorny thicket half way along the bank and eluded the dog by diving into the thickest bit of cover . I was fairly sure it had back-netted but as I scrambled into the bushes the rabbit belted out . The last I saw of the heroic creature was its little white flag of a tail waving in a sort of two-fingered configuration as it dissapeared into some neighbouring woodland . Woodland that neither I or the dog may enter .

That was the only bunny to completely evade our clutches though . True the dog fumbled another rabbity retrieve and allowed his prize to escape his dainty,inexperienced and dove-like jaws but it did'nt get far thanks to a bit of suicidal back-netting. The dog fully redeemed himself when a little later an enmeshed rabbit managed to pull a peg and started scrabbling hopefully away wearing one of my nets as a sort of kinky ,fetish Batman cape . It was caught and neatly retrieved by the pup seconds after it finally threw the net and probably thought it was home free !.

Eight rabbits might not seem a big haul considering the effort involved but their capture pretty much marks the end of a hard season's campaign to knock what had been a massive infestation back as hard as possible .

Give it a night or two and I'll be scouting about with the lamp and baby dog .Hopefully we won't see much but if we do maybe the little dog will get a run or two. And just maybe he'll hang onto one .

 

Half past six and no sign of the workmen !

Edited February 1, 2011 by comanche

[JoeD 24]

Nice write up and sounds a great place to ferret

 

Joe

[ace32 4]

canny day out,my pup is still too much of a pup at the mo,tried her last weekend,she ran around the long net a 100 mph,thought it was a game,will give her another try at the end of the month,i might even let her run one,only 5 months or so now,so plenty time yet,nowt worse than waiting in all day for some wanker to arive,who doesnt bother never mind,you had a good un with the dog n fert,s,ian

[KittleRox 2,147]

Good write up,sounds like the dugs coming on well,how old is he?

[auld salmon 28]

good write up and like the expressions

[comanche 3,076]

Good write up,sounds like the dugs coming on well,how old is he?

Thanks. He is only 13 months and I know a lot of folk like to get their pups running quarry a lot earlier but I'm in no hurry . Slowly Slowly catchee monkey.Plenty of other stuff for him to learn yet.

[willow 53]

well done theres no rush with dog

[Guest thebigdog]

done well

[rossi_j 99]

Cracking write up buddy, realy enjoyed that read

 

.atb. .ste.

[pigeonphill 69]

a great read as always ive got the opposite with my pup at the moment,thats what you get when you take out a young lurcher with a lakeland terrier pup a bit to hard mouthed but one good thing is the rabbit does not get away and i blame you for getting me in to grief with the miss when she comes in later as ive just skinned out 4 moles to stuff :tongue4: sitting in my front room

[comanche 3,076]

a great read as always ive got the opposite with my pup at the moment,thats what you get when you take out a young lurcher with a lakeland terrier pup a bit to hard mouthed but one good thing is the rabbit does not get away and i blame you for getting me in to grief with the miss when she comes in later as ive just skinned out 4 moles to stuff :tongue4: sitting in my front room

 

Your pup looked a bit more firey than my little chap . He's got a sort of more serious outlook on life. Dead chuffed with him today because he froze over a woodcock .To be honest I thought he was staring at a pile of leaves until I went closer and it took off !.

 

As for the dead moles adorning your living room. No probs mate. I'll take the blame if it helps . Funnily enough I just had the Egyptian President's wife giving me grief on the phone . Her hubby blamed it all on me too!.

Seriously everyone needs a stuffed mole(see my effort below and use it as a warning of what can go wrong ) but four!. Are you doing a sort of tableau incorporating a mole tea-party?

 

All the best