As an avid squirrel hunter (sorry, PETA!) I had the brilliant idea of training my Jack Russell to tree squirrels. This is not as far fetched as it sounds, as JR's are born hunters. I tied a squirrel tail to a string, and pulled it across the yard, where I pulled it up into a tree. Fancy was all for it, jumping and trying to climb the tree.

Now, the first day in the woods. Fancy ran, nose to the ground, so I thought "success!". Yes, until she discovered some small animal's burrow! It was then that her heritage came into play. Jack Russell Terriers were bred to go after foxes in their dens! JR's are VERY single-minded when it comes to digging in holes! I repeat, VERY SINGLE-MINDED! After several hours of unsuccessful hunting, I pulled a very resistant Fancy out of the now extremely excavated burrow, and literally had to carry her back to the house. Right back out the pet door she went, straight into the woods, directly back to her diggings! Have I mentioned that Jack Russells, despite their small size, can move at a rate that far exceeds that of a 46 yr. old Redneck? I finally had to close her up long enough for her attention to be distracted by her chew toys.

Thank heavens that fox hunting is not popular in Mississippi!

LOL!!!! ahhhhh yes terrors (i should say terriers) and their digging. at least fancy dug in the woods. mine, well she escavates in the building in front of us, the park (and has actually woken up a poor little mole) and yes inside the apt. there must be a fox underneath the tile, cuz she runs into the bathroom and "digs" forever. that or my theory is correct and shes a bit nuts. fancy sounds like she is having the time of her life
patricia

LOL, it reminds me of the time I tried to "gun" train my horse. She was a whopping great 17h thoroughbred and I was only 16 at the time. I leapt on her back, had my now husband, then boyfriend, hand me my rifle and I fired it over her head. Well, all hell broke loose, she reared up, I fell off, she went berserk and took off across the field, over the fence and down the road. We had to get the car and track her down. I never tried that again, a "non-gun" trained horse was just fine by me.

madi xx

HA, Who are the bosses eh?
Can just picture you all. My Tasha was a devil for chasing rabbits. She was off like a shot , caught one once and it sat there in its petrified 'frozen with fear state' and she just gently licked it. Then off it hopped with us all just watching in amazement. She also used to try and get up the trees after the squirrels barking incessantly. Noushka just couldn't be bothered with the 'hunting' Think she realised she would never win, just used to trot along looking at Tasha as if she was loopy.

Hope you all have a good day. Looking quite wintry here in UK.

Thinking of you all.

Love Jan
xx

I know exactly who the boss is in our place Jan and it's not me, it's the cat, she's the boss of me and the dogs. I would swap your wintery UK weather for ours any day, we're not even into summer yet and it's up to 43 degrees C or 109.4 F here already. Summer is going to be a killer. I envy you gals in the Northern hemisphere.

madi xx

Hilarious, Madi! I can just see you flying out of the saddle! Now you see why I get along with a horse as long as all SIX feet stay on the ground! I'll leave the horse riding to you!

By the way, the other day I let Fancy go with me to check out my deer plots. She treed a squirrel right in front of me, on the one time that I didn't carry a gun! She looked real disgusted, as though she was saying "I did MY part, now you do yours!". *sigh* maybe she'll forgive me if I give her another squirrel tail!

Andy

You sound like you live out of the city like I do Andy. I live in a farming community, my husband and I have a few cows that we run, but our business is small compared to that of our neighbours, who make a living off their land. It's a beautiful spot except for the main road with it's 110 km per hr speed limit that runs past it. We always said we would never buy a timber framed home on a main road, but that's what we bought because we fell in love with the place. Of course when we bought it years ago, the traffic was only a fraction of what it is now.

madi xx

Yes, Madi, I am fortunate enough to be living on the land that I roamed as a child, which consisted then of a couple of small fields, but mostly wooded (hence the love of hunting!). About eight of the ten or so acres that I own now are wooded with pines, elms, walnut, and numerous oak species, wild cherry, gum, numerous other types of trees. My land is bordered on one side by a small creek, and in the front by a gravel (more correctly, a dust or mud) road. We have always been able to let our dogs roam freely (except when in estrus!) so I feel for the pets that have to be kept indoors. I realize the necessity of that, but I do love to see any animal that can run all out, enjoying the freedom of the outdoors!

This is not without peril, however, as I have had two dogs run over on the gravel road that fronts my land. Both my first male chihuahua and a beagle mix that I had were both prone to chasing vehicles, which can be an EXTREMELY difficult habit to break! My mail carrier broke one of my childhood dogs from chasing cars by tossing out firecrackers at her.

One other near miss was when my beloved little Bitsy (pic under my user name) was just a few months old, an only weighed a couple of pounds. Bitsy had gone out into the front yard to pee. With her being so small, I peeked out the front window to check on her...just in time to see a hawk in a dead dive at her. I slammed the front door open hard enough that the hawk was startled and pulled up just a few feet short of my little girl! Had I not chosen just that instant to check on Bitsy, I would have probably have never known what happened to her!

Living out in rural Mississippi has it's share of perils, such as snakes, bobcats, coyotes, feral dogs, etc...but I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else. Although, my parents were seriously considering emigrating to Australia when I was a small child, because my father could have gotten a land grant for being a skilled tradesman. The only reason we didn't was that our family dog (Chico) would have had to spend months in quarantine, and my mother did not want her "little man" to go through that! But for the love of a dog, I could have been a fellow Aussie!

Thanks for the post! I am amazed to read of the similarities of the experiences of two different hemispheres!

Andy

We live 1km from the state pine forest, they go for miles and we used to take our beagle and German Shepard x with us when we went exploring on our horses. Rani the German Shepard used to stay with us, but Duke the beagle used to get onto the scent of a kangaroo or emu and he'd be gone. He also became quite deaf at the same time, strange that, you could call and whistle till you were blue in the face but he would never come back. We used to go home, unsaddle and hose down the horses, then drive back and wait for him to appear hours later at the entrance to the forest and bring him home. Gees, we've had some interesting dogs. Duke ended up being run over on the road as well, but at least the guy had the decency to stop and bring him in to us. He had just had surgery for prostate cancer and survived it too.
You have more predator type animals in the U.S. than we do here I think Andy, we don't have bob cats or coyotes or wolves, we do have foxes and dingos and our snakes are deadly, the pythons are massive, foxes are more of a threat to chickens and ducks only though. Up North we have the crocodiles and they have taken their fair share of humans and domestic pets in recent years. Down here in South Australia we don't have to worry about them though.
I can imagine how you felt when you saw that hawk going after Bitsy, it was close wasn't it? if you had not noticed her when you did, she would have been gone and that would have been devastating.
That is so ineresting that you almost became and Australian, I am with your mother though, my pets come before anything else too. I could have been a Canadian, my mother came out to Australia from Liverpool England," born in Scotland though" many years ago and it was just a matter of which country took her family first, Canada or Australia. Australia won, I think, although I have always wanted to visit Canada, it looks so beautiful.
It is great chatting to you Andy, it's almost as good as travelling.

madi xx

Sorry I haven't replied in a while, Madi. We may have more types of predators in Mississippi, but thank heavens no man-eaters that I am aware of, although the bobcat that let loose with a god-awful scream behind my deer stand last week certainly did its fair share to deprive me of a couple of years of my life! I was sitting very still, as one must do while hunting, when I heard "YOOOOWWWAAAWWWWLLL!" from somewhere just behind me! After the first split second of paralysis, during which every hair that I have on the back of my neck stood up, I whirled around just in time to see a full-grown bobcat streak away. I later found its burrow very close to that spot. I hope that I spooked it as bad as it did me, and that it will find another vicinity to live in, as my stand is very close to my house. Bobcats will kill housecats and small dogs, and as fierce as Fancy is, she would certainly not be a match for said bobcat! I would hate to have to shoot the lynx, because I do not believe in shooting any animal that I do not intend to eat, with the exception of any animal that may be a danger to my family or pets! I do not have any kind of furred, finned, or feathered trophy mounted anywhere in my home!

Good to hear from you too, Madi. I thoroughly enjoy hearing from far away places, and hope one day to be able to travel "down under"!

Andy