Day 85

It was raining and crummy yesterday again. It was misting most of the morning, and it was steadily getting colder. I'm not sure if the squirrels could tell that a big front was moving in or what, but they where out in force when I took my lunch break. Headed out to my squirrel spot behind the health center, and I started off the day heading through the open section in the front. I'm not sure why there arn't any rabbits in this part...there are briars everywhere, and it seems like it's good rabitat, but none have been seen thus far. Always have to check it though, and after doing that, we continued on through the woods. Nothing was moving, and I'm starting to realize that the "city" squirrels are on a different schedule than the "woods" squirrels. I don't give up that easily though, so we head to the section where she have had some flights so far. Like clock work, we hit the spot, and she flew up to the top of the same tree she chased in one last time. She is peering around VERY intently, so I move in, and start beating around the dead tree. The squirrel that lives her is really large...and though it may be the lighting or something, appears to be VERY red (as opposed to the brownish orange that one usually sees). This squirrel has picked up on the game pretty quickly, and after two really nice tries from the bird, it manages to bail to the ground, with me hot on it's heels. There are TONS of dead limbs on the ground, and once I start running, i pretty much stop looking at the ground. I slam my legs into NUMEROUS branchs, as I stumble through the woods after them, but get burned pretty quickly. She crashs the ground in front of me, and I guess it was enough to turn the squirrel, b/c it heads back to the tree we started in (though I don't know this at the time). She ladders back up, and i start kicking around in the area that I THINK the squirrel went to, but can't move anything. She starts looking at "the tree" again, so I walk back in that direction. When I get withing 15 yards or so, the squirrel bails out of the tree. It seemed like it was falling in slow motion, and Dee started closing the gap really fast. She gets there JUST after the squirrel bounces on the ground, and crashs HARD. This took place out of my sight line, but I hear bells jingling like crazy, so I'm hoping she is wrestling with a big fat squirrel! I get there to find her empty footed on the ground, and I'm a little dissappointed about it. Oh well...time to head back to work, so I call her to the lure, and we head on out. I need to find squirrel spots that are better...this one slip a day nonsense is getting really frustrating. I have gotten permission on a few different ones, but they arn't condusive to quick hunts, so I need to find another spot close to work. Rabbits are sorta the same...the dumpster WAS being productive, but it hasn't been lately, and I know the bird must be getting tired of it. So the search is on again...need to find some gravy spots, and start getting consistant kills again. Kent is coming down to hawk on Friday, so maybe I will find some gems before then.