a good night out

[fishfish 17]

sat having tea last night and there's a knock at the door,judging by the enormous shadow it could only be my hunting buddy,so once we had had a hour in the shed messing about we got ready and set off with stubby and his new dog laddy.laddy is a fine dog maybe a little neglected by the last owner but now has a real chance of a good life.

on our second field a blacktip rabbit showed in the lamp,laddy was out in a flash and off turning on a sixpence and zig zagging with the blacktip rabbit,it was a tense couple of minutes and then the bdooly blacktip rabbit went through a dense black thorn hedge.we followed the hedge down and found an open gate into the adjoining field ,hb shone the lamp up the hedge and sure enough the same blacktip rabbit was 10 yards into the field,the dogs were both out this time and stubby was giving it all he had ,it was the fastest ive seen him run,the blacktip rabbit changed directions dozens of times but just couldn't break from the 2 dogs that had target lock on! the blacktip rabbit again made for the hedge the other side of the field but this time made a bad turn and stubby was on it blacktip rabbit down! the blacktip rabbit got free and made a dash for it....straight into the jaws of laddy,dead blacktip rabbit.

we had a couple of runs in the locality and then gave the now tired and out of breath dogs a rest.we made our way just a mile to some fields where my wife had coursed a blacktip rabbit with the collie the previous day,and had in fact seen several black tip rabbit either side of a quiet road when she cycled to work at 6 am each morn.

as we got to the field a quick sweep of the field with the lamp showed a busy field,2 roe bucks laid down grazing on the fresh crop of rape seedlings,once we had positioned ourselves between the roe and the copse on the edge of the field hb loosed the 2 dogs who were already straining to go,one roe was singled out by the 2 dogs ,this beast was really going for it but so were the dogs,stubby was up front and gaining fast,a few turns widening the gap between dogs and deer,then on the straights the gap narrowed,until finally right in the corner of the field stubby took the deer down,they both rolled a couple of times into the long grass,both struggling to get back on their feet the deer to try for freedom ,the dog to finish the job. the roe buck was the quicker and jumped a 5 bar gate and made off into a thick copse,ans was gone.the dogs both were running up and down the fence hoping to get sight of their quarry but it was long gone.

so having had a great evening we made back to my sleepy village and the warmth of a raging wood burner and a brandy.

 

of course this was pre ban !

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