5thgearwide
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Dec 2017
Location: VA
Posts: 128 |
Night 15
Stink, stank, stunk... Cindy caught another skunk. We got in the woods 3 hours after the sunset in the western sky. Unseasonably warm tonight, low 50’s last time I checked. Cindy was rearing to go tonight, it was a short ride to our destination and Cindy came out of the box quivering with anticipation. I cut her up a small creek that flowed from a spring head in some mature oak timber. As Cindy was getting into the woods I had a minute to take in the beauty and simplicity that it seems you can only find on a dark still night. Cindy made a good 600-700 yard loop and checked back in so we pushed deeper. The sound of the peep frogs cut the silence as they were singing their songs tonight. They obviously listened to Punxsutawney Phil because they too thought it was spring time. As Cindy was hunting out I was easing down the oak ridge when I heard a critter coming through the woods so I stopped and listened as it got closer I flipped on the red light and gave my best impression of Kaw-Liga the wooden Indian as a stinky black and white stripe waddled on past. Cindy had been pushing out for awhile so I checked the garmin just to see she was checking back in. About the time she was crawling under the woven wire fence that Mr Stripes had just waddled past a few minutes before she couldn’t resist, she turned and burned down the track and before I could flip my white light on she came barreling back smelling a lot stronger than before. In all the excitement she forgot that woven wire fence that she just crawled under seconds ago was still there. She slammed the fence so hard that she got her head stuck in one of the squares. I was trying to decide if I should help her get out, attempt to just get my collar, or just leave her all together when she finally got out on her own. Normally I would try to make a trash race an unpleasant experience for a dog via electronic stimulation, but because I didn’t catch her in the act, and the fact that she already turned it into an unpleasant memory, I am hoping that she has no further interest in this particular specimen. She went on and hunted after this, got about 250 yards, struck, opened on the track, multiple times up to 420 yards and slammed a tree, then came off 10 yards and treed again, then bounced back to the first tree, and back, and forth. She moved the track with good speed and judging by the excitement in her trail barks I’d say it was red hot. When I got there she was bouncing back and forth between 2 pines, both of which had coons in them. I was toting an old sears 22 tonight with open sights and I brought 15 shells. The coon on the right was in the thick but the top of the tree was bare, I devised a plan to try and walk him up till I could get a good shot, not the best plan but I was using what I had. I tied Cindy off and praised her up really good despite all the stink. My plan worked quite well, shoot just under the coon, he’d climb a little and repeat. When he finally worked his way into the bare area of the big white pine and I had him dead to rights for Cindy, CLICK. Should have brought 16 rounds, or learned to count in school.... either would have worked better than my genius idea tonight. I apologized to Cindy and walked her 50 yards away from the tree and cut her again, the civil war behind us didn’t seem to phase her as she headed down the creek. She struck again at 280 yards, opened on the track several times, and locked down at 395. She had a coon on the outside of a big poplar on the creek bank. I praised her once again and sent her on after a short lead and she hit another creek. I have a bad habit of trying to predict where a track is headed once a dog has started it. I guess I developed this habit bear hunting a lot, but sometimes by staying in front of the dogs you get to see the game.... or the trash. Cindy struck on a tight spine of a ridge that rolled down into the creek after a couple hundred yards. I got to the intersection in time to hear something running up the shallow creek, red light, annnndd it was a weasel. I thought surely she not running this little joker... a few minutes later sure enough here she comes step for step. The alpha came in handy with a few low level stimulations which proved to be enough to make her feel uncomfortable enough to quit the off game. That was where our night ended, she left good tonight, hunted out good, got 2 bad experiences with off game, hunted after accumulating a nose full of stink, treed 2 coons side by side, waited out a civil war that amounted to no meat, and treed another coon after the battle. All in all a very productive night in the woods, a beautiful night, and I would consider it successful to a certain degree. We still have a long way to go, but we’re a lot better off than night one. So Yal stay tuned!
__________________
Cedar Ridge Kennels
Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged
|