Run to catch

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I know that we all have had those mornings where we roll out of bed, look out the window, check the thermometer and think to ourselves " naw, I'm not going out in that today".
Well, yesterday was that kind of morning here in east Tennessee. A steady light drizzle of rain, breezy and a raw 37 degrees. Good day to stay in and watch a couple movies with my wife.
But, when you've got the urge for going it's time to suit up ,load up and go.
And over the years I've found that many times when the weather is nasty the running is super ! The four girls absolutely burned them up. Some of the best runs of the season and I hadn't even bothered to tote the shotgun.
I was running in an area that has some big fields and open vistas and could watch the runs as the girls took the rabbits way out and back. Don't know if the rabbits are starting their breeding cycle yet but these cotton tails were running like a March hare.
My girls are 4,6,7 and 9 years old. My 4 year old Queen is probably the fastest ,track running beagle I've ever owned. She'd probably be considered too rough by a lot of beaglers but I'll say that on a big ,hard running rabbit she flies. On the other hand I felt some sadness as I watched Queen's mother Tess bringing up the rear. At 9 years old she has definitely lost a step but the old girl won't ever quit. This morning she didn't want to come out of the box and was moving about like I do after a day in the woods standing in a cold rain listening to the beagles run. Gotta love it! Tough to get old -- for both of us !
Raining and cold again today. Think I'll watch some movies .

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Rainy day and going through some old photos.
Here's a pic from 2007 hunting swamp rabbits in the Delta and the Yazoo bottoms with some old friends. Bill Miller, Jeremy Jernigan and Mark McClain,
Thanks for the memories.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Jeremy Jernigan, Daniel Harrell, Mark McClain, Lloyd Robinson and Dana Robinson.
You think Daniel Harrell looks taller than the rest of us? It's probably because he's 6' 10" tall. He played college basketball at the University of Houston with Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler both of N.B.A. fame.
He didn't go around thickets -- he marched right though them!

[Aubrey Holcombe]

Now, Dana I under stand why they they always,, calling you "Shorty" !

NICE LOOKING BUNCH OF RABBIT HUNTERS, FOR SURE!!

Same type of raining weather here in Dixie land,

D.R.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Was running this morning with a couple of friends of mine. We had 7 dogs down and after a few false starts we finally had a real good race going.
Right in the middle of the race we heard one dog start screaming. Davey turned to me and asked "what dog is that?" The rest of the pack continued to run and I said "it must be on of yours or Jabo's as Tess and Josie are still running".
The dog continued to cry and Davey said "that ain't right, somethings wrong". I told him there was an old woven wire fence down in there and I 'd had a dog get hung in the fence there several years ago and I'd bet that dog was hung in the fence.
He headed in to find her as we could hear her pitiful crying. Once he got to her she shut up and after about 5 minutes he yelled "she's all caught up in some barb wire, I need some help".
I headed in to him. His Brownie female must have been running with her mouth wide open and the barb wire was on the ground. The wire was wrapped, twisted and imbedded all around her tongue. Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth about 10 inches and bleeding quite a bit. Davey held her while I tried to untwist the wire. No luck. We tried bending the wire back and forth to break it but it wouldn't break. I had wire cutters back in the truck but that would have taken a 1/2 hour or more to hike out and back. We tried turning the dog over and over several times to see if that would untangle the wire but the barbs were holding like a treble hook.
Brownie was starting to really get to be a handful to hold and was fighting us and the wire and we were afraid she might really further injure herself.
Davey was getting pretty worried about his dog and said "we gotta do something quick". I grabbed as much tongue as I could and untwisted the wire as much as I could and just pulled. It tore her tongue some but she was free.
Davey got her to the vet. and after all that she will be fine. Just eating soft food for a while.
You never know what a day will bring when you turn them loose.

[Hare Chaser]

I always carry my Victorinox multi-tool on my belt. Very similar to a Leatherman.

Wire cutters built in along with several other features. I’m lost without it!

[Shady Grove Beagles]

You know Dan that all the years you and I coon hunted together I always carried a pair of needle nose pliers or hemostats for pulling porcupine quills.
Down here in this country I need to always carry a pair of wire cutters as there are so many wire fences everywhere I run -- woven wire and barb wire.
Over the years I've had three dogs get hung upside down by their hind leg going over woven wire fences, had one get caught by her collar going under a chain link fence and just this season had one get gashed pretty badly running a rabbit full tilt through barb wire.

[Hare Chaser]

Glad you guys were able to save her. Had to be horrible for her and such a helpless feeling for her owner. I imagine he’s pretty thankful you were there to help.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I don't kill a lot of rabbits but, I do like to shoot and I do like to eat some and have several good recipes so I do put some in the freezer.
Problem is that when I make a rabbit Bruschetta,casserole, rabbit Fajita pie or a stew I'm about the only one that ends up eating it as my wife has a "thing" about wild game and biting down on a #6 one time.
I had about 2-3 lbs. of boned out cotton tail and swamper rabbit meat in the freezer and thought -- EVERYBODY LOVES JERKY !
Looked at several jerky recipes on the internet, picked one and the result is delicious ! Don't have to wonder what to do with it in the future. Rabbit jerky !!!

[Shady Grove Beagles]

You can use your oven set at about 175. I use a dehydrator.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

I'm super pleased with how it turned out. The recipe I used makes it kind of peppery which is fine by me.
I know some folks don't care to eat a snowshoe hare. I'm sure it would make a great jerky.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

A reminder. This is the time of the year to be vigilant when running.
The coyotes will be having their litters and this is the time of year that they can be most aggressive and territorial. If your beagles get near a den while running you may very well get one chewed up or killed. I've had two beagles get grabbed by a coyote over the years. Both times it was in the Spring and both times there was a coyote den in very close proximity.
I had Josie and Tess out running yesterday morning. The dogs were having a good race and were a couple hundred yards away. I caught a movement in the brush and here comes Mr. Yote tip toeing right at me. I had my pistol right on him and let him keep coming. About 30 yards away he stopped and looked right at me. I thought he'd probably caught my scent. I fired and he was in instant motion and I threw a couple of more at him to hurry him up.
I carry a Glock 42 - .380. It's a personal protection gun. Not a hunting firearm. I'm pretty accurate at 25 feet but at 25-30 yards I might as well have been throwing stones at him.
Can't say he was interested in the beagles but I wasn't going to let him get interested !!

[Rabbithoundjb]

Dana I carry a little .380 myself just for those kind of instances. You never know what you might encounter.

[Randy Osborne]

I was driving into woods close to daylight a couple mornings ago and saw two coyotes in the road near where I was going to run. Had no guns with me though as I was on WMA and no guns allowed this time of year. Been trying to get back to woods and run but weather has been crazy for several days now.

[Shady Grove Beagles]

Earlier this week I took three of the girls out for a run and left Queen in heat at home.
Went to a spot I've been running for years now. It's probably 3-4 hundred acres. It's a peninsula surrounded by water.
Got a rabbit up and they were circling him for about an hour which is about all the rabbits there seem to be able to stand. He left the field and went down a very steep hill in the woods. There's a rockpile down there and I been holing rabbits there for years.
I waited about 5 minutes and started hollering "he's in a hole". Usually they'll give it up, come to me and hunt on. Fly came in but no Tess and Josie. I kept hollering and whistling but nothing. Fly kept going straight down and out of sight and 5 minutes later she'd come back and sit with me.
I was getting upset as this isn't how these two operate. They are 8 and 9 years old and run nothing but a rabbit. They handle great and don't leave the country. This hill to the lake doesn't lack much to being vertical. I slipped and slid holding on to underbrush until I came to a 50-60 foot shear rock wall that extended 100 yards in each direction. I could look straight down to the lake and there is no shore what so ever.The water is right up against the rock and way over your head.
I climbed back up the hill on all fours, leashed Fly and headed back to the truck a half mile away. Calling all the way. Couldn't help but think, this ain't good, this ain't good at all.
There was no one else on the W.M.A. so I knew they hadn't been stolen. Afraid that they might have gotten in to the rocks and got stuck fast? But probably not both of them...... Wondered if they'd gotten near a coyote den and the coyotes had grabbed them.
Went home, dropped Fly off ,grabbed a bite and my wife and I loaded our kayaks.
Got back there and walked about a mile loop around where I'd been running all the time hollering and blowing my cow horn. Nothing.
I'm getting really worried now because this just isn't those two.
Eunice and I drove about a mile down the road to a T.W.R.A. boat landing and launched the kayaks. We had about a 2 mile paddle to get out to the cliffs on the point of land where I'd been running. We were paddling in to the wind and there was a pretty good chop on the water.
I was hollering and fearing the worst and came around the corner and could see two beagles up on a rock surrounded by water and the vertical cliff behind them. There's was probably a 100 yards of swimming water in either direction and no shore at all. Once they realized it was me they started jumping in the lake and thinking about swimming to me but kept returning to their rock.
I finally paddled up close enough and grabbed Josie by the collar and dragged her between my legs in the kayak. I then grabbed Tess and pulled her aboard. No easy feat as neither dog had ever been in a boat and were pretty freaked out to boot.
Eunice finally paddled up and I transferred Tess to her boat and we began the hour long paddle back to the landing. They settled down and seemed to be exceedingly grateful that old Dad had come and got them.
I figured they had shut up going over the hill at 10:30 and it was now 3:30 - they been marooned on that rock for 5 hours.
I have no idea how they ended up there. Slid down the cliff, fell off the cliff ????
They were covered in dirt and had been digging at the base of the green tree in the left corner of the cliff pic. Ah, the joys of beagling.