Day 4

Hooch and I went hunting again today.  We left early and went to the Sportsman's access.  The water was way down, and we had a lot of land to cover.

Rowdy was stove up a little - his feet hurt.  Lucy was ready to go and hunted as well as she ever has.  Hooch saw a pheasant go into a tall dense thicket.  The stuff dogs don't like to go into.  She went in and flushed it out.  Hooch shot it and then Lucy had to go back in to retrieve it.  After that she was a hunting machine.

We didn't see a lot of birds.  The first was a covey of quail.  Unfortunately another hunter busted them before we could get them.  He was the only other hunter we saw all day.  In general the birds ran rather than flew.

We did see one pheasant fly below us, so we walked around to get it.  Lucy was following it.  I watched it run through the grass in front of her.  Unfortunately the bird doubled back.  Lucy turned back, but I thought she had lost the scent.  Just then another quail covey flew up and the pheasant escaped in the commotion.  I got a shot at a quail, but missed.

A little on Lucy disappeared in the high grass by the river.  After awhile I called her back.  She didn't come, and then we heard her yelp.  I panicked and started calling her back in earnest.  She finally came back but kept going back into the woods.  That's when a pheasant flew up.  I didn't see it and Hooch didn't have a shot.  It landed on the other side of the river.  I really wish we'd got that one for Lucy.

After that we went to the other Sportsman's access.  We didn't spent much time there because the dogs were about done.  Even then, Lucy did a good job of covering ground for awhile.  Hooch got another shot at a quail, but that was all we saw.  Finally both dogs timed out.  They quit hunting and just walked in front of us.

When we got back to the trailer we unpacked.  I had to bandage Lucy's leg sores - they were both raw.  I was also worried because she had vomited three times.  I think it was because of all the grass and stickers she'd eaten.  Ellen fixed her rice while I went to lunch with Hooch.

When we got back Hooch took a shower, packed up, and left.  We spent the rest of the day surfing.  We didn't go over to Dan's.  I just didn't feel like imposing on them every day we're here.  Patsy called about 9 to see if we were OK.  We told her we'd come over tomorrow.