Sunday, June 13, 2010

Monkey Business

Just in case anyone was wondering, my wife came up with the name for my last post...

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Day before yesterday I took the dogs out again. Went a bit further south than usual, just below the area where my jeep nearly slid off a mountain road. There's a nationally owned forest nearby, so lots of wildlife. I've seen a lot of monkeys, deer, and boar there in the past.

Well as luck would have it as soon as I get the dogs suited up and out of the car they go tearing up the mountain without me. Turns out there was a troop of monkeys sitting up there, and the area soon filled with their alarm chirps and barks. Haru and Baron already know that monkeys aren't much fun to chase since they're impossible to get at, but Momo didn't seem to have ever experienced this before. She spent a good 40 minutes underneath them baying. I didn't even bother with going up there after the dogs, just called them once and walked off. Haru and Baron got the point and caught up with me after a couple minutes.

Momo was not getting the point at all so I finally had to go back for her. Once I got up there with Haru and Baron, Momo realized it was no fun, and followed us down. We moved further down the road and up a different ridge, and what do you know, we ran into another troop of monkeys. This time all 3 dogs went after them, and all 3 came right back. Good stuff.

After switching ridges again we started tracking a large deer, and a group of small boar. I wanted to give Baron a chance to find them himself as I had an inkling they were close. Haru and Momo waited while Baron and I went looking. As we got close to a large overgrown area full of weeds and bamboo Baron slipped in. Seconds later he started baying, and I heard a loud crash. I was excited that he'd found the boar, and started to pull out my camera to try and get some shots as they were close. I put it right away as the noise started to come towards me at speed. As they finally broke through in front of me I was a bit disappointed to see a large buck in summer coat bounding along with Baron in tow.

I called Baron and walked away, and after a minute he came back. I'm not interested in hunting deer, and while my dogs are pretty good about not chasing them, they still get on them every now and again. I wasn't happy it was a deer, but Baron did a good job finding, flushing, and most of all it was the first time he's bayed something in the mountains. Usually he's just in trying to catch. So I guess all in all it was a good day.

It was a beautiful day, and aside from the abundant ticks, it was pretty enjoyable. Here we are back at the house. Baron isn't afraid of anything... other than heights. Big wussy always wants me to lift him out of the jeep. I've made a drop down ledge for the dogs to jump down onto to minimize the distance to the ground. Haru and Momo use it, but Baron's taking his time. He sat up there whining so I finally had to give him a friendly push.

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