First Kill of the Season

Scott got us a doe on Friday evening! Also see the pics on our Gone Huntin' page. As far as MY hunt...well...its a good story! :)

I chose to hunt a new stand Saturday morning that is just across the road from our camphouse. Unfortunately, it was also close enough for DOC to find! He usually will stay at the camphouse when we leave in the morning, but I guess he heard Scott's truck stop to drop me off just right across the street. Before we even got to the edge of the woods...here comes Doc! We put him in the back of the truck while Scott walked me into the woods to show me where the stand was. Then, before Scott headed for his stand, he took Doc back to the camp and "tied" him up.

All the while, I'm getting cozy in my stand....getting everything set up and dreaming of something good walkin out! Less than an hour after I'd been on the stand, I heard that noise that every hunter waits to hear....crack, pop...something BIG walking through the woods! I instinctively grab for my bow and look toward the direction of the noise. My heart is POUNDING!! Oh yeah!! I see white!!

Unfortunately though, its not white horns...its a WHITE LAB!!! Running ALL THROUGH the woods! Back and forth....sniffing everything like a wild man! Thinking to myself, "WHAT is THIS!!!!"

My next thought was..."Lassie?".....Of course my firt instinct is to worry. Is Scott hurt and Doc has come to find me??? I text Scott..."R U OK?"

I wait.

No answer.

I text Scott, "R U OK? Where are you?"

I wait.

No answer.

I CALL Scott, "Ring....ring...."

No answer!

I call Scott AGAIN, "Ring...ring...HELLO (in an ANGRY whisper)....

"Are you OK?"

"YES! I'm TRYING to get into my STAND!"

"Where did you put Doc?"

"At the camp, Why?"

"He's not at the camp. He's in my woods. Running all around!"

"Where is he now?"

"He has run off right now. I don't know exactly where he is."

"OK, well he's probably gone back to camp. Sorry about that. "

"OK. Love you, Bye."

"Love you, Bye."

Two minutes later...here he comes again...runs right up to the tree next to me, looks up...runs to my tree...looks up....ears perk up...tail begins to wag excitedly....he was proud of himself! He found me! And with a grunt of accomplishment....plops down at the foot of my tree.

Well now...what should I do? He has definitely run anything that WAS here off....And he doesn't look like he's going anywhere. I even give it about 5 minutes....he doesn't budge!

Geez! So much for this hunt, lets go back to camp. When I stand up to take off my harness, he hears me and excitedly jumps up and watches my every move down the tree! He really thinks he has done something good here! I text Scott to tell him what happened and he graciously offered to come out and take me to a different spot...but I declined. Then he text me again,
"Tie him up better than I did and return to your stand." Auh, Doc and I went back to the camp and took a nap in the heated camper instead!

About 9:30 Scott woke me up....he had decided to come back to camp for some coffee and then go find his doe from the evening before.

Deer camp....always exciting....