Hope

 After dropping Connie off at her home, I arrived at my home just at dark on Thursday. As I walked from the truck to the house, Hope greeted me like a long lost jailer, with the hopes of me feeding her. I had contacted Tami, on the day before leaving, and told her not to feed Hope any more so that I could possibly hunt her when I got home. The one problem with having a life, is that it sometimes cuts into ones hawking. Tami however had done a great job and her weight was just right when I picked her up on Friday. Generally a week long disruption will take a couple of extra days to iron out.

A normal Hawk of a different species would have most likely suffered performance issues after a week of inactivity, but the Harris is not like any other species. They like to hunt more than they care to eat. Her weight was perfect, with the extra day of not being fed, she was just at the bottom of her preferred weight range. 

I went to Arock to hunt the Lava bluffs there. The last time there, I found a Jack further up the road than I normally hunt. I went back there to start this time. I have been taking the dogs with me, and after some scoldings I have finally convinced Josie that I want her to stay close to me. In truth, about the only benefit that I can see to the hunt routine, is that the dogs don't feel left out. I can live with that. Nice close slips work out the best. If you give a Jack Rabbit time to plan, he will generally beat us. Having those large ears, they know where we are to the inch, and most generally do not wait around to see what we are selling.

We covered a lot of that hillside and did manage to get a few slips, but they all managed to evade her. Eventually I began to work my way back and we busted one pretty close on some more open Sage. Hope caught him. It was a bit uphill from my position and I was covering as much ground as I could. When I got close I could see Josie standing back from the tussle, just as I wanted her to. Her tendency to get in there seems to have always been misunderstood by Hope, so I had to make Josie understand that biting the rabbit was a no no!

By the time that I arrived back at the car we had covered three miles. I was totally surprised that we really didn't loose any real time in our season, and really proud of Hope and her desire to hunt.