Sully the socialite

Dave shot his first deer! He didn't have to wear his camouflage or sit in the cold for hours. Sully cornered it.

After losing Sully for a good 30 min. he was discovered frolicking with a deer just below our house. Now, our German Shepherd likes to play. I mean, he really likes to play. With anything. Cars that run him over, horses that trample him, cows that kick him, squirrels dead or alive, turtles dead or alive and dogs. Dogs that run, dogs that growl, dogs that bite, big dogs, little dogs, blue dogs, green dogs. It matters not the level of aggression he's faced with. Sully will merrily swing his tail with glee at the prospect of a new friend.

Now enters injured deer stage left. Sully happens up said deer and commences to "play" with his new found friend. Play for Sully includes jumping. Jumping on, over, in the face, on the back, between the legs, over the neck, jumping. Not to be left out is licking, welt inducing tail flinging back and forth, tongue lolling in joy, saliva slinging to the four corners of the earth, paws everywhere but the ground.

This spike buck knows not what to do with Sully. Unable to run away he attempts charging our lovable dog who in turn licks the bucks face. After seeing this distressed animal being tortured by our rambunctious pet Dave put the thing out of it's misery. Now before you go running to Fish and Game to put my husband away, know that it appeared to have had an encounter with a vehicle. The vehicle came out better from the encounter I am sure. I will spare you the details of the poor thing. Just know it's in a better place. At least it's not harassed by Sully anymore. If only that held true for the rest of us.

I feel like turkey tonight!

I missed the fall turkey hunt this winter by 2 days. I really wanted to try to shoot something when I got home. Not the “post traumatic stress disorder want to shoot something”, just the normal want to shoot something that I’ve had since I was 5. So a week ago I asked a friend with a really big yard if I could try to take a turkey. He said that was great but only if I shot some of his horses while I was at it. Sadly we just didn’t have the freezer space. Maybe next year though.

I’ve never been hunting before. Everything I know about hunting I learned from the advertisements in Field and Stream magazines. I didn’t have very high expectations, but by golly that wasn’t going to stop me from trying. Long story short: I didn’t get one. After 6 hours and being chased out of my first hide by dogs I sat up to leave. That was when I discovered that I had unknowingly called in a hen. She was standing just outside my field of vision about 20 feet away watching me. When I sat up she started moving off and then I missed my shot. Oh well. At least I knew I was doing some things right. The next day I went back and found a spot where I could see more. After 2 hours I called in another hen and nailed her. It would have been cool to hold out for a big old tom but I was excited and didn’t really care what I brought home, so long as I wasn’t empty-handed. So here is my turkey.

Something else I learned. Plucking and cleaning a turkey sucks and smells tremendously bad. I brought it home pre-cleaned because I wanted a picture. Next time I’ll make sure I bring the camera and leave all the guts out in the woods. Anyway- Yay for me and being a mighty hunter.