I’ve been a bit unsure what to write about this time, most of what is happening here is a big leak under the bathroom floor so that’s taken up most of my mind. Being stuck in the house ill in the middle of rabbiting season and having been chatting with the gas man yesterday about rabbiting (as you do) I though how about telling you about my first trip rabbiting?
This was many years ago. I’d bred my first litter the year before and I had my two kits from the litter, Spice (Spice weasel) and Gizmo. The litter had been between my jill, Jess and our gamekeeper neighbour’s hob, Tony. Jess was a great hunter, Tony… well it’s weird we were always asked to help out with the ferrets when the gamekeeper owned two. In retrospect I think we were asked originally out to try and bring me, a kid, into the fold of the hunting community. Perhaps that’s the reason I was asked to bring my youngsters and not my adults too, to encourage me since I’d raised them on my own merit by myself.
So, the day came that we went out. There was our neighbour and his friend Peter with the guns and my dad and I with my two kits. It was a lovely sunny day, beautiful weather for spending time outdoors and remarkably warm. I believe it was May, outside the usual ferreting season but the farmer had asked the shoot to look out for rabbits, so it was a pest control expedition, not so much a hunting trip.
When we arrived at the shoot the two experienced men took the time to walk around some areas where they had seen signs of rabbits before. They showed me what we were looking for. Spots that rabbits have been feeding, poo (of course) and paths made in the undergrowth. Although we found lots of signs we were coming up short looking for warrens. If only I’d had my dogs at the time! This was shortly before we got Tammie in July. In the future I started getting the dogs to find warrens for me and then seeing if the rabbits were in occupancy with the ferrets, the ferrets being much better at actually knowing where rabbits were but much easier to lose in the undergrowth.
They also taught me why we were doing this, that the farmer was worried for his crops and the diseases that can be spread if the rabbits are too numerous. They told me that the guns were only used if they had a good shot and something behind to stop the pellet if they missed, this was particularly interesting to me because I was concerned that one of my ferrets could be hurt. A little wiser we forged on looking for the rabbits.
It wasn’t until our 3rd or 4th location that we actually found some warrens and the ferrets got their chance to do their thing. Down we put them and in they went.
And out they came again.
Empty. So, off we went again, off to the next field to look for signs. After a few hours the heat and sun started to get old and exhausting. Sweat was soaking through clothes, and to make matters harder we were moving onto more and more uneven ground trying to find these rabbits we had been called out to. Eventually Spice started to stop even wanting to wake up as we took him out the box and Giz was getting passed around between holes to check each one, sometimes going in for a time, sometimes just sniffing the hole and moving on.
After a very disappointing day we decided one more spot and we’ll go home. The side of the hill we were on was in shadow now that tea time was approaching. Spice after spending the afternoon napping was ready to have some fun, though he seemed more interested in playing in the tunnels and bushes than actually working. Gizmo was still dutifully mucking in and out of the warrens. As we waited for Giz to reappear we tried to catch Spice. Eventually we had him back in the box and continued waiting for Giz. After some time, we started wandering around thinking she had somehow slipped away from us. Gizmo was extremely close to me and always came when I called even in the dead of night so when she didn’t come to my call we all started to get a bit worried.
Ten minutes later I heard a tiny noise in the earth nearby. A kind of scuffing noise. I poked around and found a tunnel exposed to the surface. The wall of the tunnel was held up with roots leaving gaps you could see into the tunnel through and letting a bit of noise out. Inside through the gloom of the tunnel and the shadow of the hill I could just make out the white of her fur. I called her, and she moved infinitesimally towards me.
I shouted out that I’d found her and kept encouraging her to come closer to me and the gaps nearby. She moved slowly and in spurts, as though each step was taking all she had. I couldn’t even see which way she was facing! Just a moving white shape. Getting worried I tried to reach through the gaps to pull her closer to the hole.
Eventually she came visible as she moved into more open tunnel and I saw exactly what was wrong. This tiny jill was attached to a huge rabbit, pulling it by the ankle to the hole and my voice, fighting for each step. The only rabbit we’d seen all day and she was not letting it get away!
Once she got within reach we pulled her out, took the rabbit off her and dispatched it in seconds, I was shocked how quick it was. She was very pleased with her prize, showing it off to her brother. It was the joy she had at finding this rabbit that got my attention. I had never been interested in hunting before but seeing how happy it made my girl, learned my it was done and that the rabbit was given the quickest death I could imagine made me see it in a totally different respect.
So, in the end, we came home with dinner for the ferrets that night and I came home with some thinking to do.
Hope you liked my story, until next time!