As A Season Changes

The beauty of life in the country never ceases to amaze me.  Leaves changing colors, wildflowers throwing straw, chamomile turning brown - the majestic purple of the hillsides.  Among it all the never ending hunt of the wildlife struggling to survive as man encroaches on their territory.

Crisp days and chilly nights with velvet skies burning bright with stars of worlds we have yet to even know of.  As those nights begin, the hounds snuggle into quilts and beds - tired from the days activities and taking the best of a hounds life - the everlasting nap.

With this many hounds, we rotate routines daily.  Weekdays are full of the main pack and newer hounds learning the ropes, those that do not do well with group play wait until late afternoon when the others are in their hound daily coma, and they come out to chase leaves, sniff the scents and howl at the moon.

Along our perimeter the coyotes.
Fall sees many rabbits, cottontails as well as jack running into our fenced in acreage - we have often laughed and called Daphneyland the Hound and Rabbit Refuge.  Once the property was fenced in, the rabbits felt a false sense of security and can run through chain link with hardly a pause.  Coyotes can leap in freely - yet it does slow down the hunt.

Acton is the old gold mining towns of years gone by, and old mines exist all over the hillsides.  Now turned to wildlife dens one is on a neighboring property and often I watch the cycle of life as the kits come out in the spring, and the adults hole up in the winter.  Nothing can be as bone chilling as a coyote packs celebration on a meal.  Silent hunters, they send a female in heat out into the community to lure back their meal.  The celebration is the feeding frenzy - too late to save that life.  Coyotes hunt 24 hours a day, 8 days a week, and those who come from the city new to the country are often fooled by thinking they are not out during the day. We see them constantly yet it takes a well trained eye to pick up their coats out of the countryside at this time of year.

Only once did we have a coyote come over our fence after a hound.  It was in the early years, and I had a senior out for last time of piddle - Big Barney was at my side.  We were inside the kennel structure tucking hounds in when we heard a ping on the chain link - ever so faint.  Barney looked at me, and I looked at him and we ran outside through opposite doors.  I arrived just in time to see a snarling whirling flash of basset teeth and ears at the heels of a retreating coyote - one leap clearing the 6 foot fence.  My lesson was learned and seniors are not allowed out after dark without supervision and never alone.

The country is beyond beautiful.  The mountains sentinels of tranquility.
Nature is often brutal - the cycle of life shocking to those far removed from the daily hunt for food.
Maybe this year I will revisit a shopping mall on Black Friday - I hear it can be as brutal, I might need that reminder.