Back to normal

Well it took four days for Hope to return to normal weight. Hope gained about 6 ounces of weight from the Rabbit that she dined on while I was beating my self up trying to find her. Friday she was finally at a "normal" hunting weight. Connie and I secured a transmitter to her tail and went over to the ranch to hunt, rather than drive 30 miles one way, to an area that holds no more Jacks than my normal spots here at the Ranch next door.

So far all of her kills were Jacks that she had caught in the head. I had been wondering how her foot was this year compared to last, and did not notice any difference. I of course would not with her grabbing them by the head. This day however was different.

Friday she caught four Jacks, and every one got away from her. I saw three that she caught close to us that pulled away from her before either I or the dog could get to them. One of them did a total 360 flip with her holding on that cleared the 2 foot Sage. I put in about four miles and I was getting a bit tired as well as it was getting late, so I fed her a bit and we called it quits.

Connie and I took her out this morning again at the ranch. I walked a short little piece of ground that generally holds a Jack or two. We managed to get up two Jacks that she missed, and one that she pulled a foot full of hair out of. We moved to the other end of the field and began to hunt. Before we had managed to walk more than 50 yards she chased a young Jack, slamming into the ground with an audible double thump. No scream, but I was pretty sure that she had hit him.

This one was stone dead when I got to him. That was more than a bit surprising. When I skinned the Jack, there were no marks on the body at all.

So Friday confirms that she does have a problem with her other foot in opening it, but she is good enough to compensate.  With the scarcity of Rabbits in this area, I may not hunt very long this year, unless I can find someplace with more game than what I have so far.