A friend, Toby Parker came over from the coast to spend a few days with us. He had wanted to be able to see Hope hunt. Careful what you wish for! Today she did put one in the bag, but it took three days to do it.
The first two days Toby wasn't wearing that brace on his knee.
Not counting the driving time, this rabbit took us about 12 hours of hunting and walking to get it done. Its not that Hope wasn't trying. She was, so much that I felt sorry for her. She did every thing that she could think of and other than pulling a bunch of hair out of ones butt, she had nothing to show for it. We were lucky in that the weather wasn't all that bad, the wind did come up after noon on all three days. We hunted in 5 different fields with the same success in four of them. I decided that I needed to change tidbits yesterday, but other than that she had no rewards for all her efforts.
She was desperate at times, hunting on foot, launching off after dicky birds flushing.
Today I tried two other spots, and we were getting flushes, some so ridiculously long that I knew that it was a waste of energy and time. She kept crashing into bush after bush, and coming up empty each time. One of them was in the relative open, and she was just about an inch from his butt when one of her wings snagged a short piece of Sage no bigger than 5 inches off the ground, and flung her off course.
Today she launched her self off the perch flying across a long open area towards a patch of Sage. I watched and as she got there a Coyote flushed out of the Sage. Thankfully she veered off and came back to me.
We were walking around a large upthrusting line of Lava, when she flew to the top for a better perch. Toby called to me that a Bobcat was up there with her. I looked up as she opened her wings and the cat ducked under her no more than a foot away. My blood froze as I was sure that he was going to swipe her off the rock. He appeared to be a 3/4 grown, and apparently he was unsure enough that he didn't grab her.
By that time we had been hunting about three hours, and covered most of the field. I was heading back to the car as the wind was coming up. I was unsure what to do. I was actually ready to shoot one, just to make sure that she wouldn't quit trying. We were walking by the fence and were busting Jacks one after another, with her trying each and every one of them. She had gone after four of them in a short space, and wonder of wonders, she crashed after the fifth and I heard the Jack screaming. I approached the site carefully and could see the Jack stretched out fully with her holding onto his butt on the other side of the bush. I knew that if I got closer he would give that final burst that would most likely break her tenuous hold. Not willing to go through that, I shot him in the head from 15 feet away with my 22 pistol. There was no way that I was going to let that unlucky bastard go. While I appreciated his sacrifice, that was as fair as I was willing to be. We needed him, badly.
This is his escape hole. It is Jack Rabbit sized. Hope was on this side, and the Jack was on the other.
She was still holding on for all she was worth.
As usual I gave her the cup full of tidbits, but she was wound pretty tight, and wasn't about to give up her rabbit.
We sat down to rest while she ate every thing she could hold. Again it was an old Rabbit with quite a bit of fat inside its stomach cavity.
She is trying to flare up when they stop and hide. She has yet to succeed with it as of yet, but she will. It is the key to catching the Jacks, as when pressed, they all hide and then take off when she is out of position. One thing about it, I am getting plenty of exercise. I just hope that I can hold up long enough that she can figure it out.
Hope there are some of the willy jacks left when we come. Dumb young ones make it too easy for Chili.Damn I hope I didn't just jinx myself and Chili.
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