critter in my house

[rober]

sitting on the couch last night & out of the corner of my eye I saw something small & brown dart across the floor & go under our love seat. even though I've never seen one around the house my 1st thought was that it was a field rat. grabbed a towel to throw over it, rolled over the love seat & found myself looking at a very small baby bunny. I caught it & put it outside. my redbone hound has what bird hunters call a soft mouth as in he can carry game & not damage it. 3 days ago I took a baby bunny away from him so the next one he caught he kept hidden in his mouth. he's done the same thing with birds he's caught & brought in. I know he caught several bunnies that day but I thought he'd eaten them. i'll have to keep an eye out as there could be more.

[brooksbeefarm]

Rabbits are in abundance at the Brooks farm? They don't seem to be afraid of human, cats, or my old bird dog that doesn't chase them any more but does point them  . They never bothered anything in the garden or the yard that would give me an excuse to declare war on them? I don't kill any animals that i don't intend to eat UNLESS they become a problem, the cats do catch the babies and eat them if they find them. Just not enough predators around like fox or coyotes, we do have red tail hawks that follow me when i mow the fields. Wish the Quail would come back like in the 50's and 60's . Jack

[rober]

by more I meant in the house. I've not seen a quail in years. I remembered kicking up coveys of 20-30 birds. the explosion of wings would make your heart skip a beat.

[lazy shooter]

Many years ago, I kept an English Pointer in my back yard.  One of those Easter Chickens ended up in my back yard.  To this day, we don't know where the chicken came from.  Anyway when I got home that afternoon, I noticed the dog carrying something in her mouth and upon investigation found it to be one or two month old chicken.  The chicken was fine and in good health, but it was solid wet from being carried so long in the dog's mouth.  I gave the chicken to a local pal that kept chickens.  I bet that chicken was traumatized.

We still have a few quail, and it is said, that they are making a come back.  I hope so, as I loved to see them, hunt them and eat them.  There are five or six coveys on my 800 acre ranch, but they are mostly small coveys.  Thirty years ago there would have been 20 large coveys on that much land.  I do so miss them.

lazy