Thanksgiving 2016

I was supposed to fly Hope Yesterday, but the wind was ripping, and Harris Hawks aren't designed to catch Jacks in the wind. Jacks are much too smart to put themselves at a disadvantage by running with the wind. Since the top speed of a Jack is about 40 MPH, and a Harris about 45 MPH you can see that you will be bucking the odds. I gave her a bit of Bunny to let her know that I still care.

Dave and Tami as is usual had invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, and her dad Ted, who I quite like, was going to be there with his wife. I email him and inquired as to whether he would be interested in going rabbit hunting with us while he was here. He informed me that he would, so we had made arrangements to go on Friday. However since I had skipped Wed, I had no choice but to take Hope out on Thanksgiving. He agreed to the change, with the stipulation that he had to be back by 11 AM so that he could start the Turkey. I assured him that we would not make him late for that job, and I would come by at 9 am to get him.

The Sunrise this morning was not disappointing.

Ted and Thayen posed for me.

I got Hope out of her box and we began our hunt. She flew a Jack that jumped quite a ways off, and flew him twice before she lost him and returned to the Tee perch. We had walked another 15 or so yards when a Jack jumped in front of either Ted or Thayen and took off for the fence.  Hope caught him in just a few yards. They were buried in a large Grease Wood Bush. She had pulled his tail off about 5 yards in front of the Bush, and apparently managed to grab him again higher up before they crashed into the bush. The bush was right up against the barb Wire fence, and I had to dig them both out of the bush. I had a bit of a problem killing him because he was so long that I couldn't get enough leverage to actually break his neck.

When I finally managed to put him out of his misery and he quit twitching, I gave her the cup of tidbits, and covered the Jack. I offered her the rest of her last Bunny, and she eventually stepped off the Jack. It was nice to have someone there to put the Jack in a shopping bag and in the back of my vest.

Hope was really cold this morning as it was 25 degrees when I picked her up. I put her on the scales to weigh her and she had a foot drawn up trying to warm it. I don't know if that was the reason that she wasn't fooling around this morning or not. If so I will be sure to go early in the morning the next time I go out. What ever the reason she wasn't taking no for an answer.

I kinda felt bad for her, she had just caught a nice hot blooded Jack and I give her refrigerated Bunny as a reward.

For whatever reason she is reluctant to give up the glove when

we finish up the hunt. She generally holds on to it the whole trip home.

I at least gave her the  still steaming liver for her vitamins for the day. Even with allowing her to finish a Bunny from the bottom of the rib cage and one rear leg, we were done and back to Tammi's in 50 minutes. Not bad at all.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!