Empty Holes

[bshadle 5]

Got up Saturday morning, and found out the weatherman was a bit off. (What a shock.) Instead of the 20F and 30 – 35 mph winds originally called for, it was all the way up to 26F and the wind was only 20 – 25 mph. Bright sunshine, blue skies, a few white clouds, a perfect bluebird day. Of course, the bluebirds were walking and wearing parkas, but you can’t have everything. I reluctantly traded my favorite canvas boonies hat and leather gloves for wool, layered a fleece sweater under my jacket, loaded up the truck and set out with Dot and high expectations of finally finding something home.

 

First place we went to turned up nothing but empty holes. No problem. I’m getting good at finding those. We headed over to a large dairy farm ringed with good old-fashioned hedgerows, where the owner had reported fox earlier in the week.

 

One minor problem - He had told me he was going to turn off his electric fence for me, but left for a farm equipment auction and left it on. Don’t ask for details on how I discovered this little problem. All I’m gonna say is that Ragg wool with a 15% nylon content is NOT as good an electrical insulator as some people might like you to believe. I’ve heard that the new LRTs will work under electric fences, but after the current shocking revelation, wasn’t in the mood to test that claim. Back to the truck for another location.

 

On the way there, I spotted a friend who owns a small rural airport in the middle of some fields. We often find hogs surrounding the runway in the summer, so I know there’re a lot of holes. Stopped to talk, and he said he’d been seeing fox in the drainpipes under the runway and I was free to check ‘em out. Told him that as much as I appreciated the invite, 300-yard long drainpipes were not the places I preferred sending my dog, and that he’d probably be really upset if I had to go back for a jackhammer and backhoe to punch a hole in his runway to get Dot out. He agreed he’d be upset about that, but at least it gave me the opportunity to reconfirm permission for hogs this summer. Off to another location down the road.

 

This was another place where the owner had seen fox earlier in the week, and I was still hopeful. Shouldered the pack, and headed across an open alfalfa field towards the far hedgerow. First good sign – we find fox scat by one of the holes. Dot checks it out, but shows no interest. Farther down the row, we find a dead possum. Dot has some fun nosing it, but still not interested in the holes. Then we come across a huge five-eyed sette in a tangle of raspberry canes and blown-down goldenrod that catches Dot’s interest. She goes down one eye, and I thought we were on to something. Then, her butt appears out of the hole; she backs out, sniffs her way to another eye and heads back in. She backs out again, and then works her way from eye to eye with the same results – in, out, and move to the next one. She was fascinated by this sette, and went around from eye to eye for almost 30 minutes, but never found anything. Finally, I called her off, and we headed back to the truck.

 

At this point, I’m not really sure if there was nothing home there, or she just hasn’t quite got the hang of what her part of the job is supposed to be. By the time we left that sette, her coat was closer to Carhartt tan than her usual white though, and my adrenaline had taken a nice spike. I think my next move has got to be either taking her out with an experienced dog, or taking her somewhere that I know for sure contains quarry. Or both.

 

By the time we called it a day, it had warmed up to a balmy 32F, the high for the day. Got home, put away the gear, then washed Dot back from her current tan to her former white. Lot of fun for no game, and we were done in time to hit the local fire hall for their chicken potpie fundraising dinner. Gave Dot a small scoop as a reward for a good day and Poke some as well as an apology for letting him at home.

 

This’ll unfortunately be my last time out until early March. I work next weekend, and got elected to a Township Auditor position some years back. Most of my free time in February will be consumed auditing the township books. If you’re nearby and looking for a challenge teaching a rookie digger and dog, give me a shout then.