Pud finally caught one

I decided that I wasn't going to bag Pud any more. After her last trip I seriously considered not flying her again. She has done that badly. I mulled it over for a couple of days and decided that I was going to not reward her any more. She was going to have to give me something to prove that she was worth the effort and time. I decided that I was going to take her out hunting and if she didn't catch something then I would not feed her more than tidbits. I would take her out in the evening and mornings until she caught something. Feeding her only enough to keep her alive.

This morning she was down to weight, but the wind was howling, and due to pick up to 18 or more MPH as the day progressed. I didn't want her to start out low, so I fed both her and Jessie a Sparrow each. The idea with Jessie is to get her weight down to the point that I can start flying her, and for Pud it was to keep her weight up. Karen and I split the rest of the two cords of wood that would keep us warm this winter, so it wasn't a total loss.

The wind finally died down about 6:30 PM, so I picked her up from the weathering area and found that she was 835 grams, well within her response range. It is a mystery as to where all these rabbits that dine on my lawn in their multitudes each night, actually live. I started off across the runway and crossed the fence, moving through the Sage paralleling the field where they all seem to come from. I made a full circle of about a mile and saw three Jacks, and Puddy saw two Bunnies. I was surprised to see her really burn after a Jack, but he managed to avoid her. She seemed to be quite a bit more serious than I have ever seen her. She rarely really tries to close with Jacks, but the one flight that I saw tonight was serious.

I crossed the creek well below the house and walked back to the road crossing on the creek. It was starting to get pretty dark, and the moon was well up by the time that I got even with the corral. We hadn't jumped anything at all on the flat where the house sits. As we neared the fence at the end of the corral Puddy took off really burning it and crashed into a Sage hard. I had seen nothing, but a thin scream proved that she had.

I had prepared myself for a long ordeal to get her to actually catch something. I would have preferred that she catch a Jack, but I wasn't about to complain about any catch that she made on her own.

Apparently in the dim light the Bunny never saw us. No matter, I was happy and Pud was absolutely ecstatic.

I was quite pleased when she looked to me as I got a hand full of tidbits out of my bag and offered them to her. She quite willingly took them from my glove with no effort to try to foot me. I exposed the rear legs and back of the bunny. She immediately opened the abdomen, but made no objections to me disposing of the guts. I let her eat until she was over the initial adrenaline rush. I picked her and the rabbit up and made my way to the hanger where I could sit down while she did her best to get around as much of the bunny as she could.

She still has no regard for her feathers, but hasn't broken any more of them lately. I guess I am going to have to imp some in soon.