Leader of the Pack
Hunting season. And a non-hunting dog. I dread the next few weeks til the deer slaughter is over for another year.
Tsuga has chased many a deer for a short dash, but never caught one. He's never tasted deer blood. But he sure can smell it. We've had two killed by hunters with permission on our place in the last week.
The first was shot by an 11 year old son hunting with his dad. They dropped it just before dark up in the powerline clearing high above the house. And every time the dog steps out on the porch now, his nose goes high, twitching with the thrill of the hunt, being one of the pack.
It must be an odd thing to have such a deeply rooted species memory compelling him to join the hunt, find the carcass, take his share.
Day before yesterday, while I worked on one of the woodpiles, the dog wandered in the thick brush below the powerline clearing. Looking up, I caught a glimpse of him just as he swallowed the last of a whitetail's nominate feature. It was apparently all of the kill Tsuga could find. Twern't much, but at least he was still a member of the imaginary pack he runs with. Looked like a dog eating a feather pillow. Looked ridiculous, but it made him proud.
Then yesterday, neither threat nor promise would bring him down from the smell of conquest. I had to literally climb up with the leash and alternately drag him and be pulled by him back down from the power line clearing through tough brambles and a wasteland of trimmed treetops on a 30 degree pitch. I fell more than a few times. I looked like I'd been in a cat fight. Today, I could have been in a train wreck. Everything I got is sore. The dog is puppy non grata.
However, he is fine, and today will likely revisit the place up on the hill where (in his canine imagination) he single-handedly killed a deer: White Fang--alone at the head of the pack.
Comments
Dog egos, gotta love 'em. Mine go alternately for the manured hayfield across the !@#$%% road and porcupines.
Posted by: Karen | November 17, 2004 12:58 PM
Phred:
I grew up in a hunting family. Going out on the hunt was a rite of passage for young men in Floyd County. Bagged my first deer (an eight-point buck) at 10, my first wild turkey at 11 and my first trophy deer (a 10-pointer) at 12.
I remember my crusty grandfather sitting on his front porch and crying like a baby when his favorite blue tick hound died. I think he loved that dog more than my grandmother.
Haven't hunted in more than 30 years. Hard to do now with a metal hip and plastic knees.
The real shame comes from the overpopulation of deer that has led them closer to civilization in search of food. On a recent drive from Floyd to Washington, we counted 17 dead deer along I-81 and I-66.
Now that's the real deer slaughter.
Posted by: Doug Thompson | November 17, 2004 5:45 PM
Oh those pesky deer (fox, racoon, opossum, bear, fill in the blank). How dare they cross the highways and byways we put wherever we want. How dare they eat the flower gardens we grow in our McMansion subdivisions that overrun the land where they used to eat wild growth. I would venture to say that deer overpopulation is not the reason, or at least the only reason for the slaughter between DC and Floyd. We as humans have to take a large part of the responsibility as we continue to encroach on wildlife habitat.
I know he is, but while Tsuga is answering the call of the wild I hope he is covered in a domesticated dog's blaze orange (no matter how dopey he thinks it makes him look to his feral cousins).
Posted by: Amy, NC | November 19, 2004 10:18 AM
Amy, the deer population in Virginia has doubled in the last decade (and quadrupled since 1984). Both the Virginia Department of Conservation and the Wildlife Federation call it a crisis situation.
I work with The Nature Conservancy on wildlife conservation projects and their studies show that, the encroachment of civilization has played a part but even more so has been the decline in the population of natural predators to deer (including hunters). The deer population in Virginia was at its lowest ebb in 1983, and I-81 and I-66 were in place. Since the population has increased every year since then.
Doug
Posted by: Doug Thompson | November 19, 2004 3:48 PM