close call

[Coyotehunter 689]

I thought that i would take the terriers and lurchers out yesterday afternoon, i went to one of my local haunts that never fails to hold Racoons and ive taken maybe 40 coons from there in the last 4 years,

its an arena with round bails at the back, new hay in the front two rows and stinking rancid 20 year old hemp round bales at the rear, i opened the back of the trailer to let the dogs out and stretch their legs and then pulled out Tag my Border dog, and Bumph my russell bitch, i also had my young lurcher Mick and another young lurcher who was out for the first time Swallow, its hard to let the old boys stay at home but my two old lurchers are brothers and are now 13 and its hard on them now, so i brought the young crew, i set Tag away working the bales and in quick time had located a Racoon, i could hear him well and it took a while for them to settle in one place, i could finally see him with the torch in the back corner 3 bales down, the lurcher is going mental at this point because he can see and hear everything but cant get there, so i made the decision to try and crawl down the tight space between the bales, there's no way Tags leaving this Coon and the Coon was showing no signs of moving either so i thought if i tail the Coon and try and get back out of the bales, then i could come back down for Tag or he would make his own way out, easier said than done dangling a a 20 pound pissed off bundle of fur in front of you whilst trying to clamber up three rotting bales of hemp! now at this point the old dust from the hemp was making it very hard to breath, but i managed to cilmb high enough for the lurcher to dispatch the Coon, so i then slip back down to see where the dog was, couldnt find him, my locater box was back up top and couldnt get up to get it , i was wedged by the bale, at this point i could hardly breath for the dust, and what made it worse was i thought the dog had gotten burried in all the loose hemp, that was now like quick sand, so im fishing around trying to find him stirring up the dust even more, i felt around and finally found something fury and with and almighty pull managed to dislodge the dog and myself from where we had been firmly stuck, i then climbed out out gasping for air and coughing and spitting black gunk, the dog was fine but i have to ammit to not feeling the best and continued to spit up and cough up black shit !!

Im not too bad today but when i look back it all could have ended in a much worse way, so lads if you are out working your dogs on your own give someone a heads up as to a rough area where youll be or carry a phone , better still bring someone along so if you do get in trouble they can help or call for the emergency services

[taz2010 1,297]

glad your ok mate likeyou said could have been far worse most of the time with another but to be honest mate everytime we do bales here always a few of us atb

[Coyotehunter 689]

I actually had arranged for a young lad to come out with me but he got waylayed, I did have my phone on me and could get to it so if I had to i could've rang someone , didn't make it any less scarier though.

[staffs riffraff 1,068]

i learned the hard way of not taking phone out

[northern terrierwork 74]

well done mate..