<-back to articles

From the Rabbit Journal 02-03

by Louie Mattocks :: Featured: June, 2003

I stopped by Uncle NoPass’s house yesterday. My aunt had told me he had one new rabbit dog and he wanted another one he had found in the free column. No doubt, the dogs were the finest in these parts and never ran a deer. I’m sure everybody says so, at least according to my soon to be 83 year old uncle.

My aunt greeted me at the door and told me that NoPass was cleaning up the dog pen. She had talked him out of getting the dog from the free column, my aunt informed me as I headed out the back door. I wondered if that was all that wise an idea considering my uncle’s luck in acquiring “ trained” “hunting” dogs lately. Some of the best over the past years have been a little heavy on the “sooner” side.

As I walked across the neat yard toward the neat dog pen across from the neat garden, I couldn’t help but notice how neat every thing was. Neatness has counted with my Aunt ever since I can remember, especially around the Holidays. The three little ladies quit trying to force their attention on NoPass when they saw me and came over to see if I was going to take them out for a day in beagle heaven chasing rabbits.

As I talked to the dogs, Uncle NoPass came over to introduce me to MY new dog. Robyn is her name, same as my cousin by way of Uncle Ulysses and Aunt Helen. She is about the same size and build as Kate and Lady- kinda leggy though a small dog with a white shoulder and a quarter size white spot on her back.

“ Robyn is yours. She’s a good’un. Everybody says so. Won't run nothing but a rabbit.” my uncle said with pride though the dog hadn’t been out of his pen since he had got her a couple of weeks ago. “I’ll just keep her here since you’re not set up right now. I had her spayed last week. I wouldn’t have any dog less‘un it‘s a spayed female. You just get Your dog when you feel the urge to rabbit hunt, you hear? Did I tell you she was a good’un?, ain’t never run no deer, everybody says so."

I understood, implied or not and I thought it was a great deal. My uncle would keep the dog, take it to the vet, exercise the dog, feed the dog and I could pick Robyn up to hunt any day but Sunday.
And, of course, Uncle NoPass, Kate and Lady to!

Friday, November 08, 2002

Rabbit hunt, this Saturday morning at the clay pits below Cuz's house. I missed the first one of the year because I was in Apalachicola fishing. I might need to get the 00 buck out rather than the 7 1/2 shot. These rabbits can be particularly vicious. We lost two dogs to them last year.

Saturday, November 09, 2002

The 16ga. Fox has been oiled and is setting in the corner waiting for the next hunt.

It was a good morning. The air was cool and a very light patchy fog drifted around us as we loaded the dogs in the boxes. Uncle "NoPass" Ted decided he would ride with me in my old CJ-5. He clamored up into the jeep despite his 82 years and immediately launched into a story about how he wanted to be a driver in the army, but they decided he made a better point man in a rifle unit in the pacific. Three years, nine months and twenty two days. Thank him and the ones like him on Monday. He spun a few more tales that I really didn’t hear above the hum of the mudders as we rolled down the highway, but that was okay, I had heard them enough to be able to repeat them with him.

We hunted the old clay pits below Cuz’s house. It’s a low lying area that tends to collect water and hold it in holes and ponds scattered in the calf high grass that surrounded “islands” of thick briars and honey suckle. The short grass made for a nice landing strip for the huge mosquitoes that breed in the area. A loud splash was frequently followed by sputtered cussing by someone who didn’t see a hole in the grass or got dropped when a mosquito lost its grip. The main trails (roads) are good despite the gummy red clay because the brick company hauled in broken bricks and chips to sort of pave them. If you get off the main trails, you do so at your own peril despite four wheel drive because the wet clay packs in the mudders and turns them into giant slicks that just spin on top.

The dogs started hot trailing as soon as they were released from their dog boxes. Panicked, the rabbit vacated one of these islands a few steps ahead of the dogs and raced away in a short loop. There is no finer music in this world than the sound of short legged beagles running hot and hard as they fall over each other trying to be the lead dog chasing a rabbit they can see in the short grass.

The rabbit popped back into our view sprinting out of a shallow ditch to one side of Uncle NoPass. Showing why he spent so much time on point, he snapped around and fired a shot from his single shot 20ga. The 7 1/2 shot staggered, but didn’t drop the racing bunny. The rabbit raced into a hole in a two story mesa of clay with the dogs and NoPass right behind. Uncle NoPass's grandson, Brag, grabbed NoPass by the belt while he was on his hands and knees, halfway inside the crack struggling to reach the rabbit and pulled him back out while I kept the dogs from trying to follow into the newly vacated hole. Those holes collapsed all the time and we didn’t want to have to explain to my aunt about losing a dog. Or Uncle NoPass either.

NoPass had been bragging about his new dog that morning. “She’s a good’ un. Want run nothing but a rabbit” he told us over and over. The dogs started trailing again . Judy and Maggie, Cuz’s two dogs nosed around looking a little confused as NoPass's dogs trailed through the grass. Judy and Maggie came back to us and sat down with a air that said “ They’re lying. There ain’t no rabbit there” just as the other dogs lit out bawling and crying their way across the field and out of hearing with Uncle NoPass's new puppy in the lead….running a deer. NoPass stood there for a minute and finally said “That sure was a big rabbit, wasn’t it?”

We closed out the day with four rabbits. Proving once again that even a blind hog….. I killed the smallest rabbit of the day. Usually, I just try to speed them up a little. You know, to make it a little more sporting for the other hunters. But since it’s harder to hit such a small running target, I went ahead and rolled him as he zigzagged through the grass. Uncle NoPass said I must have had made a pretty fair shot to hit something that small. How did you get him to stop?