Jonathan writes from South Africa with this terrific tale of terriers in the field ... and out:
I wanted to write to tell you about our experience down here in South Africa a few weeks back.
Myself and Steve who bred my terriers, and as such has become a good and close friend over the years, were invited to spend the weekend on a friends farm about 100 kms past Ceres in the Karoo. An opportunity to roam the land with our terriers and lurchers not to be missed for anything. The distance on the GPS from my house is 224 kilometres, so we set off on what we thought was a short drive to the farm at 1pm.
We got to Ceres just fine and then turned off the tarmac onto a dirt road. The instructions were to follow the dirt road for about 100 kilometres and then take a turn off to the farm. After about 120 kilometres, we realised that we had gone wrong somewhere, with night starting to fall on the African bush and a mean rain beating at the windows of the truck. To top it off, no signal on the cellphone and the GPS suddenly forgot how to direct us, an unplotted zone. It seems the first part of the hunt was going to be the biggest challenge, finding the place.
Well, they do say that hunting takes a lot of motivation and here was the test for us. After 11 hours on the road, most of it driving in circles on dirt roads, knocking on farm house doors which remained firmly shut due to the reluctance of the farmers here to open their doors at night to strangers, we almost gave up. Down here, the police only come if youre lucky, so I understand their fears. We finally arrived at midnight, exhausted and let the dogs out to run about and settled into bed for the day ahead.
We got up early and went for a long walk, lost in the wilderness with a tracker by the name of Jann and his Africanis. Steve pointed out fossilised wood, an amazing thing, it looks like wood but has the weight of stone and also wild Hoodia, which you can live on if your are stuck in the wilds without water. We stopped to peel the thorns from a bush that had broken(you are not allowed to pick Hoodia here, it is a protected flora species) and Jann showed us how to peel it. Tastes like cucumber that has been injected with soap, absolutely awful, but it is good to know stuff like this in case you ever get stuck.
After a couple of hours walking and sniffing around, 2 of the terriers, Batman and Candy suddenly bolted and went to ground about 25 metres ahead of us. Immediately there was a huge commotion from the hole, which had a single entrance. Bad sign, the sound of something similar to an airplane engine starting, a porcupine. It had them boxed in, about 3 metres into the sette, then hard sand on top mixed with stone. They had gone in and then pushed past the porcupine, which was the source of the noise. Silence followed from the dogs, for too long. We started to dig from the top, but the Porc bolted after about an hour to a quick dispatch. Two very tired tired terriers quickly followed.
5 quills in Candy and 14 in Batman. Thank God not in the eyes or through the chest. I held Batman whilst Steve quickly removed the quills, with swift confident movements, making sure there were none left in. Batman held perfectly still, immediately calm after his ordeal, and glad for the removal of the source of his discomfort. In my opinion the sign of an excellent dog, one that knows when to turn it on and also when to turn it off.
This was a hard day. Not one that one should send photos of. We didn't even take any. The stakes were too high to be messing around with a camera. I am left with a massive respect for the terriers and their solid unwavering determination to win territory by attrition.
Batman, like the dog he is, got back to his homeyard, climbed out of his kennel run over a 2.5 metre wire fence( no easy feat for a fit dog, let alone one that had just been quilled 14 times) and then climbed over another kennel fence to cover a bitch that was in isolation as she is in season. There is some dog irony in his will to end his days hunting with the company of a female of his choice. I wish him a speedy recovery. I have no doubt that if there are puppies, that they will be workers too for what a day they were conceived upon, and what a master worker they have as a father.
I am glad to say that the dogs made a full and very quick recovery. With the failure of our gps and cellphones, at least we had a full and comprehensive first aid kit to get the dogs cleaned up properly. They are back in the field and doing the thing that they love best. The funniest thing about this trip was the drive home. Having taken almost 12 hours to get there, it only took 2 hours to get back.
I drive to work in winter here while it is still dark. This morning, there was an electrical storm of unusual magnitude and beauty. Pics are attached for your enjoyment, I know that you love nature.
Take care Patrick and good hunting,
Jonathan
Cape Town
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