Deer Chase #3 in 2016

The day started out like any other day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. As forecasted, another beautiful day. I had finished my standard two cups of coffee, read news, sports, facebook and tweeter feeds.

It was time for the first of two daily walks we take. Would Heidi be standing at the door ready to go along with Sadie and Stella? Not quite. She was stretched out on my bed under the sunshine that was filling the room.

As I attached the leash to her collar ... she didn't move. Did she not want to go on the walk? As I started to walk away with leash in hand, she got up and jumped off the bed ... heading for the door, she was reading to go.

Like yesterday afternoon I took the leash off at the edge of the yard and field and let her walk at her pace.

With the bloodhounds way up ahead and Heidi falling further behind from all the nose exploration she was doing ... I decided I would do what I did in the past at times with her and Winston ... let her go at her own pace and meet her on the way back.

You can barely see her and more interested in snooping than walking ... that's fine because she is outside enjoying her time in the field.

Stella cleaning out the area where either deer sleep or the hawk hangs out. I'll still call that large bird from the other day a hawk until someone that knows birds can tell me what it was.

No sign of Heidi attempting to catch up to us.

Stella is at one of her normal spots. Not only does she like to clean up after something but she also likes to sprint to catch up to us. Sadie and I are at the point in the walk where we turn to make the homestretch of the walk.

As I look forward I see no sign's of Heidi ... basset hounds have a white tipped tail for a reason ... to find them in tall grass while hunting. This is not the first time she has done this so it's okay that she is not around.

I tell Sadie to "go find Heidi" and she puts her nose to the ground, following our worn path and most likely picking up Heidi's scent from yesterday. For the upcoming story, notice toward the house the field is slightly elevated where I cannot see  what is near the house.

What I do know is I start hearing Heidi barking (baying) loud but cannot see her. Then all of the sudden, in front of the house from the lower elevation a deer hops out and is heading straight for me and Sadie ... but a long way off.

The deer looks in a panic coming at us but when it smells or sees Sadie it darts to our right, with that short legged basset hound chasing it and baying nonstop. The deer is darting from spot to spot looking like it is trying to find a way to escape.

MY CAMERA DIDN'T FOCUS during that time and by the time I could get it to take a photo the deer was three lots over and running fast to get away from the loud sounding basset hound still in pursuit.

At this point in time the deer is 'flying' ... 

Stella is out in front of the other two hounds but way behind the deer - yet Stella is flying on her run, she's fast.

Sadie was in pursuit of the deer ... and this is only a guess .. she heard Heidi baying loudly and possibly thought Heidi was in trouble or hurt and turned around to come back to check on her. Sadie as always thought of herself as a "leader of the pack".

Sadie hears me yelling "come on".

Sadie sees that Heidi is okay and has decided she needs to tell me what was happening and how they chased the deer away and out of 'their' field.

All three hounds have decided they are going to backtrack the path the deer came from. I wonder if they think there might be more deer to chase?

By this time the excitement for the morning is over and we are back on the worn path to head home. Heidi in the meantime is going to track the path of "her" deer all the way to the place she started barking.

Heidi leads the way back to the house and all three hounds are pretty proud of what they have accomplished this morning. While editing, download photos, writing this blog post ... all three hounds have been in a deep sleep. It's past noon and not one of them has woke up to let me know it's time for their lunch. Heidi barks and Stella howls daily when they want to eat their lunch.

I am just happy that when Sadie or Stella runs out of sight chasing deer, on all three occasions they have come back on their own and not ran off. It will be hard to top that morning excitement but let's see what the rest of the day brings ... we'll head out for another walk probably early evening since it will be too hot in the afternoon.

Fast times in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Flushes Out A Deer

I will be posting 2-3 posts today about this morning's walk but I wanted to get these photos up quick for you to see what Heidi did this morning. I will discuss more in detail in the next post but here are unedited, non-cropped photos telling the story.

I hear Heidi barking but can't find her. As you see in the first photograph she is nowhere in the immediate area.

Just over that hill towards my house in that photo, a deer bounces out in panic mode with Heidi in pursuit and baying loudly nonstop. The deer heads towards me and  Sadie in a panic mode and is sprinting, running dodging looking for a way out ... while Heidi barked loudly and running as fast as those basset hound legs would carry her.

MY CAMERA WOULDN'T WORK!!!!

By the time I caught the deer with the camera it has sprinted from the back of my house, across the next lot and the wooded area shown below. She was already behind my neighbors 3 lots away. Of course the bloodhounds went from a quiet stroll back home to a full out sprint.

Stella in pursuit

Sadie so excited doesn't know which direction to go

Heidi still in pursuit baying

Sadie wanting to run to me to tell me what happened

All three hounds came back when I kept calling "come here" ... I have no idea where the deer came from because when I saw the deer it was about 50' from my house in the backyard based on the location of where I first saw her.

More details in the next post -- cropped zoomed photos -- in the meantime you can click these for a larger view.

Never a dull moment in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A System Test

Update 9:32am

I've been getting feedback by comments and emails that readers can see both posts .. blogger dashboard is adding the visits ... but here is what is strange ... maybe it's on my end since I am the blog author.

I was logged into the blog and made two replies to the comments on the post "A System Test" ... no problem.

While still logged in I went immediately to the post in question "The Hounds Love Hot Weather" to send a reply to the comment made there. When I clicked the publish button, it sent me back to the Google screen asking me to log in again. I did and was able to post my reply with no problem. 

Why would it ask me to log in again?  Evidently, yesterday when the page disappeared while I was scheduling a time for the post to happen, I hit the back arrow to bring the post back to my screen and scheduled to post with no problem ... that must have caused a glitch.

******************************************************

For some reason Google? Blogger? the Internet? didn't like the post that I did last night at 8:30pm. I received a few emails telling me the page wouldn't load, some said their sidebars didn't update to the new post.

When I checked it out, I could see the new post even last night after receiving these emails. Yet Blogger Stats were showing the new post was getting zero visitors, even mine. Also, I didn't receive the email notification that I had posted a new post on my blog. I am an email subscriber just to monitor the feedburner system.

I'm not sure what happened nor what to do.

So I write this post this for a couple of reasons:

1. To check to see if the normal system updates to this post.
2. To have you reply back to me with a comment below or an email telling me if you can see this post and the post from Sunday night called "The Hounds Love Hot Weather.

Otherwise, like usual when there are Blogger glitches, time eventually will take care of itself.

Thanks for your help.

Already a beautiful morning here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

The Hounds Love Hot Weather

After some lunch the hounds decided it felt nice enough to spend a little time outside this afternoon. By 12:30pm, the old thermometer in carport was a tad above 85°. There are ten acres to roam and a yard to lay in ... but Stella decided he could move me from "her" spot by laying partially on my feet. I did move but only to take the photo.

Heidi came outside on what I like to call 'on her own' .. no calling her name, no begging and no food bribery. She just walked outside with the other hounds ... sniffed around and found a comfortable spot. In the 4 years I've had her I have never see her lay there.

It didn't take Stella long to be lights out under the hot sun.

Sadie as usual didn't lay down, wasn't interested in laying down and had the usual look on her face of "what's next". She has been that way for 8 years next month.

By this time Heidi decided the gravel was too hot and moved to a grassy area. Stella moved to the cooler gravel and fell into such a deep sleep she stretched out while I baked my face and head under the sun to start the summer tan.

Sadie was about to lay down but Heidi caught her attention so her nap was called off. By this time I can feel that it's getting hotter and I can also tell that Sadie wants to go inside.

For her 3rd move, Stella decided that grass wasn't a bad idea afterall ...so she found a good spot, thought about it a little, heard a long line of Harley's drive past and then laid down to continue her Sunday afternoon napping.

It was too hot for the hounds after an hour in the sun ... they thought they loved hot weather but forgot just how hot it can get here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana. I hope it's like this all summer, I love hot hot hot weather.

While it was shaded and cool inside, they took their normal siestas, while I watched a little bit of the Reds/Cardinal game, some of the IU/Iowa game, the end of the F1 race and all of the IndyCar race in Long Beach Calif.

With 8 laps to go Sadie was anxious to get in the afternoon walk. We watched the end of the race before leaving. The bloodhounds were out the door just like that, Heidi stayed on the big chair in the living room not showing much enthusiasm. Once I connected the leash to her collar, she sprinted to the door, and out into the field. I took off the leash and tossed it back into the yard.

As you can tell they are anxious to get started.

Heidi started to lead just like this morning but it wasn't long after a lot of stops like the one in the 2nd photo, she fell pretty far behind and was walking too slow for me to follow. Still she didn't want to be left behind.

Of coarse while I am trying to keep up with Heidi, the bloodhounds went way out in front and Sadie kept wondering what was wrong with us. This IS the daily walk isn't it ... and not a crawl??

They let us catch up to them and then took off on their own path. They didn't drift far away though this afternoon .. stayed pretty close.

A farmer's day is never done. He has been going at it since 7am and by the time I took this photo it was close to a 11-1/2 hour day.

Once we turned the corner to head home, Heidi figured out the faster she set the pace the faster she could get back into that chair for a nap. She led most of the way and anytime a bloodhound would overtake her, she would move to get the lead back again.

The heat must have zapped them today because all three were walking pretty slow back to the house. They were so close that it was not possible to fit them in the photo using my 55-200mm lens until I let them get a few feet ahead of me.

As I walked into the yard and leaned over to pick up the retractable leash I had tossed, there were 4 ticks out in the open crawling on my legs. Easy to take off since they had not attached themselves yet. They are out in force so far this spring ... warm winter???  I take off 4-5 after every walk these past few days.

None of them were embedded in the hounds but crawling on their hair ... each of the hounds have one and I have moved out into an insurmountable lead for 2016. Yet, I'd rather take them off me than them.

It feels like a summer night here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana ... minus the humidity.