Sunrise this morning
Josie finally shamed me into getting out of my chair to go hunting this morning. She did so by standing on my chest and sticking her nose onto mine, thus finishing the process of waking me up from a morning nap. Dogs seem to have a highly developed sense of when it is time to go Hawking. At least Josie does. Its pretty hard to feign sleep when you are nose to nose with a dog that is standing on your chest. She was right it was time and the right day as well.
I decided to go to the top of the hill at Arock, and had just began a circle of the area before heading down, when the ranch manager drove up in his quad. He had come up to tell us that he had a set of "snares" set for Coyotes further out from where we were. It was very nice of him to go out of his way to tell us about them.
I invited him to join us for a hunt if he had the time. He thought it might be fun so we started back down the hill. I told him that Hope would likely only catch one out of 10 attempts on the Jacks, and really didn't tell him anything more, such as how to react if she did catch one. My mistake! We really hadn't gone very far when she zipped over a lava lump after a Jack, that she caught. He took off like a shot, leaving my fat old gasping ass behind.
He gave the Jack enough of a scare that he managed to tear himself loose, leaving a pile of hair behind. He was amazed at how Hope was crashing bushes and stuff in pursuit of these Jacks.
We went on, and had a couple of chases where in the Jacks managed to elude her. Then a close slip and Hope caught another one.
He rushed up on that one as well, and it too tore away. I should have told him how to react when she caught one, but didn't for some reason. Possibly thinking that she was not grabbing them all that well, or even Not Thinking.
We went on a bit further and she again caught another Jack. This one he reached for and Hope just let it go, as she realized that she didn't know this guy. This time he understood what was happening, and apologized.
Hope this morning weighed 1014. About 5 or more ounces over her weight when I got her. Granted she is probably better muscled than most of the hunting Harris's out there, because she flies more. I can find her keel bone, but it isn't very prominent. The nice part is that she is starting to wise up to their tricks and escape maneuvers. She is making more contact, more often. They tend to be a bit more tenuous as a result, but that is OK. When I am by myself, our keeping rate is much higher. She is at least making contact. I normally do not feed her if she doesn't make a kill. Today she got her food, she earned it.
The wind began to come up as we were finishing. We have a "wind warning" for this afternoon. It is blowing at 34 MPH right now with a gust showing of 54 MPH. Timing is every thing.
Josie is under my desk, sleeping. I think I will wake her up.
Yesterday's Sun sets.
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