Busy Day, not much accomplished

Today we were due to go to town. Another Doctor appointment for Karen. This one for her C Pap. Who says that I am not contributing to the economy. We have an early appointment, so I go early to do chores. I find that the peace of summer has slipped b y. There are two dead Chickens in front of the  Chicken house. One just the feet left, the other was missing the juicy parts and most of its skin. Pup Coyote! I was happy to see that one of them was a young Rooster that I was planning to get rid of anyway. Ah well, I knew it was too good to last. I had been lazy about locking them up at night.

We made our trip, getting some of the things that I needed for winterization and got home about 4:20. I had a quick snack and picked up Hope for an evening hunt. It is still hot, but today is her day. She was 930 grams, and had pulled her tail mount off her center deck. I decided that she wasn't going any where, so we went on.

Dave had told me of a field that he felt held a lot of Jacks, so I went there first. I found three Rabbits, and Hope pulled the tail off the first Jack that she flew. Unfortunately the tail was all that was left. The field was quite large and I covered it all. The Jacks come from quite a long way to get to their feeding areas. What might have a pile of rabbits in it at one time of the day or night, doesn't mean that they will be there all the time. Its like here. If I sit out by the pool when it is getting dark, I will count about 50 or 60 Rabbits. If I hunt it during the day, I may only see three or four rabbits in the surrounding fields.

I loaded her up and went to the dump field. I decided to be as quiet as I could be to see if I could get closer slips. We did get a couple, but she wasn't chasing as hard as I wanted.Finally I could see a Jack sitting between two Grease Wood bushes. I attempted to get closer, but Hope took off in that direction. I thought she was going after the Jack, but she was aiming to the left side of the bush. She crashed into what looked like a dark spot. I though it was a dead one lying there, but no, it was a Coyote apparently stalking the Jack. Hope jumped to the left and the Coyote jumped up in the air and spun around. I began yelling and running in his direction, trying to get my pistol clear. He decided to be somewhere else a little quieter. Fortunately for him, I did not see him again.

We got a couple more chases, but I was wearing out, and I still had traps to put out for the return of the Chicken thief. Tomorrow in the morning will be cooler, and she will have the night to think about the ones that got away.