Rabbit hunting is fun, especially with dogs like Princess
When Tony Holeman was describing the plan for our mid-morning rabbit hunt on a cold and windy Mississippi Delta ditch bank, it sounded good and actually made sense. “This should be quick and fun,” Holeman said, “and perfect for shooting some video. This ditch is loaded with rabbits, it’s close and it sets up just right. When the dogs jump a rabbit, it will only have two ways to go, up the ditch or down the ditch. We can cut them off easy enough.” Excuse me while I offer this after-the-fact editorial opinion on that:
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!
Hahahahaha!
Ha!
As promised, the dogs quickly struck and busted a rabbit.
We had hunters stationed on both sides of the ditch, which was about 20 feet across, 10 feet deep with only a few inches of water at the bottom, and its banks were lined with thick brush and bramble. It was perfect rabbit cover.
But as soon as the first rabbit broke and headed up the ditch, the hunters in position to stop it didn’t.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The rabbit got past the first hunters, then did exactly what Holeman said it wouldn’t — it found a third direction. It came over the side of the ditch and ran right down the edge of the field on high and hard ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
As dirt flew up behind it, the rabbit raced past the last row of hunters, ran about 100 yards down the edge of the field, cut back across the ditch, took off down the opposite side and then cut across another field. About 30 minutes and 500 yards later on another ditch bank, Holeman pulled his dogs off the trail.
Rabbit 1, hunters 0.
Holeman immediately began to catch flak.
“I thought you said two directions, up the ditch and down the ditch,” one hunter hollered, laughing. “You forget to tell the rabbit?”
Holeman shot back: “Everything worked as planned, until the human factor became involved. The dogs jumped the rabbit. The rabbit ran up the ditch right to you. You shot, you missed. Then it broke and ran down the edge of the ditch. You shot, you missed. Now, whose fault is that?”
Squarely in the middle of the pack, I knew to keep my mouth shut.
Holeman put his beagles back in the thick cover and they quickly started snorting and whining and squealing … and finally barking.
“That’s Princess so it’s a rabbit for sure,” Holeman hollered, boasting on his 9-year-old red dog that has been the pride of his kennel for years. “She’s the No. 1 jump …”
Before he could finish the term “jump dog,” a hunter was hollering.
“There it goes,” he said.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Here’s the short version of what followed — Rabbits 2, Hunters 0.
“I wouldn’t blame the dogs if they ran all the way back to the truck and jumped into the dog box on their own,” Holeman said.
The next two races did follow script, with both rabbits dying shortly after racing down the ditch bank.
Rabbits 2, Hunters 2.
Back in the thick of the brush, the hard-working pack of beagles worked both sides of the ditch. The wind was howling and it was getting colder, and the stiff north breeze was affecting the dogs.
“Actually, it’s affecting both the dogs and the rabbits,” Holeman said. “The dogs are having a hard time keeping the scent because when the wind gets in the ditch it swirls. And the rabbits, they are holding tight. To get them to jump, we either have to step on them or a dog has to put his nose right on them.”
Or, in Princess’ case, a dog has to put its teeth into them.
True story; I witnessed it.
As the other four dogs were working further down the ditch where we hadn’t hunted, Princess had walked back up toward our starting point. The pack was whining and squealing with an occasional bark. Princess was back about 50 yards and was steadily snorting and whining, a fact I thought Holeman should know.
“Tony, Princess is back there and she’s excited about something,” I said. “She’s on this side and she thinks she’s on something.”
Holeman ordered a couple of us back to check on her.
As we got closer, we could hear Princess working with an occasional excited squeal. I was waiting for that wonderful, almost mournful-sounding howl to erupt when she saw the rabbit.
It never happened.
Instead, there were some quick shuffling noises and then up the bank she came looking for her master — with a live rabbit in her mouth.
“Tony, she’s got a rabbit! She’s got a rabbit!” we all were shouting.
She walked up to me with the rabbit and I reached down. It was alive.
Rabbits 2, hunters 2, dog 1.
“I’m glad you were here with that camera to verify that, because that is the second time she’s done that in her life, and that’s eight long years of hunting,” Holeman said. “Nobody ever believed me.”
The hunt continued another half hour and Princess led two more races.
Final score: Hunters 4, rabbits 2, dog 1.
***
Mississippi’s rabbit season continues statewide through Feb. 28. The daily bag limit is eight apiece, but it’d be up to the judge whether you have to count the ones your dogs catch.
