Ming




Ming


Up at 5am, having arranged to meet Pete at 6.45 for a pig hunt, down on the floor for my Yoga, then a big breakfast. Nice morning for hunting, cool and clear, I let the girls off they where very excited, they know we are going hunting when they get woken this early. Down to the dingy at the slipway and away to meet Pete, 20 minutes later we arrive, I put all the tracking collars on the dogs, then meet up with Pete and his to dogs Goldie & Brin, today we where hunting with two sisters and there two brothers,  plus Puk the holder.

It was first light when we set off, not much pig sign around, so we walked on around the usual traps, Ming not showing much interest, then she was away, heading up the hill, the creeks where so noisy we couldn't hear if she was barking, but by the look of her track on the tracker she was onto something, so I let her sister Lu go, we walked on quickly after them watching Lu catch and join Ming on the tracker, the remaining dogs where pulling hard on there leads, which was kind of nice as we where going up hill, they could obviously hear the barking but Pete and Me, or (Dumb & Dumber as Colleen likes to call us) are both a little deaf, so we could only hear the birds and the ringing in our ears, I defiantly remember my mother saying I would only go blind if I carried on doing it, but Mother was wrong it turns out, I am now going blind and deaf. 

Anyway, now we could hear Ming & Lu bailing hard, so Pete let there Brothers go, I kept Puk with me as trying to teach her not to pull so hard on the lead when the dogs start bailing, with little effect, but I did get a free ride up the hill, up up up we went, I heard one of my girls let out a yelp, then the Boys arrive, the bailing and scraping went up a pitch, no squealing though, so I figured it was a good pig, into the bail I went, the pig with all the dogs was coming down the hill above me, they where holding and bailing the pig, which was obviously a big boar giving as good as it was getting, I let Puk go, much to her relief, she just ran in and latched on, giving the other dogs even more confidence to take a hold with 3 or 4 dogs now latched on to its head I walked in behind Mr Boar grabbed a back leg and easily tipped him over, stuck him, a stream of blood pouring out of his throat, Pete came over smiling from ear to ear his dogs had seen this pig before and this would be a great confidence builder for them. 
                                 Pete

Things had quieted down, the adrenaline was pumping around my body, I was looking around for Ming, as she usually likes to prance around after finding a pig, but not this time, she was sitting with some of her guts hanging out, 'shit Pete' we laid her down and looked her over, she looked like she had been in a knife fight, one rip under her chin, a bigger long rip under her shoulder, luckily neither of these bleeding much, but the one in her guts didn't look good, part of her guts was hanging out, but it didn't look like intestine, so I pushed it back up under the skin, then with Pete's help stapled Ming's gut rip up, then we stapled the other two rips up, Pete said he would go for the bike, while I carried her down to the track, the pig forgotten for now.

Two hours later she was laying on the Vets table in Picton, the Vet rang last night and after having her guts opened up then cleaned and stitched, plus her other wounds cleaned and sewn up she is up and around drinking water, the Vet thinks she will be home in couple of days, so she might have to spend a few nights by the fire, which she will think is bloody great.

Pete went back and picked up the pig while I was in town and Mr Boar weighted 143lb on the hook.


                  Me and Mr Boar

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