Suckers & Squealers


Suckers and Squealers. I've meet my far share of both over the years and that's about all Me and the dogs have been finding lately. Well, that's apart from the boar that ended Mings life, and one other, the one we were looking for today.

This pig had given me the slip at-least 3 times during the last couple of months, I just hadn't managed to get the holder there in-time, and before long he had taken the Bailers up and over the top ridge around 700 meters from sea level, never to be seen again.

Up early and soon on the hill with the three bitches Lu, Puk and Jude, Ming's death had left a huge whole in the pack, but I was sure the others would step up. Windy this morning, blowing from the Northwest, a chance of showers, I had a plan to see if I could drop in on that allusive boar today, we'd only been climbing a dry Manuka ridge for 10 minutes, the scrub now starting to thicken up under the Manuka, the dogs now started winding up the hill, "here we go" I thought, I already had Puk on a lead and thought I'd better put Jude on one as well, seeing as the deer liked to hang around this spot. 

Lu disappeared up the ridge, into the thick scrub. She hadn't been gone when she opened up with some quite deep barks, deep for her anyway, a lot deeper than her i've found a deer yip, yip, yip, I let Jude loose, then heard her arrive, she was bailing up a storm with her auntie Lu, no more than 150 meters away, moving slowly around the hill into a horrible steep sided bluffy creek, after I'd covered 50 meters towards the bail I let Puk go, the dogs now sounded close but only it turned out because they were on the far side of the steep sided creek, I'd headed for the only crossing in a area, carefully crossing the slippery creek and started climbing after the dogs, I could now hear the pig scoffing and blowing, sounded like a good boar to me, the dogs seemed to be keeping him busy, Jude was bailing away flat out and know-doubt Lu and Puk would be trying to hold the boar.

I pulled myself up out of the creek and around the face through the Gorse, Karmahi and stumpy Manuka, getting close now, then soon bursting onto the bail, it was a boar alright and as the dogs hadn't had him long, he was giving as good as he got. I'm standing their like a 15 year old, about to buy my first packet of condoms, girlfriend waiting in the car, when mother taps me on the shoulder! Snapping out of that, with no chance of a shot, with Lu and Puk being so close, the guns loaded. I'm about to put it down and go in with the knife when the boar sensed me, turns, and comes straight at me, shit!...
he didn't look happy and what a pair of tusks, I pointed the gun at him and he basically charged into the barrel, Boom!... he dropped stone head, the dogs now becoming very brave, harrowing and mauling him, "phew that was close" I thought, looking at him now while praising my Girls, he reminded me of the old boar from Mutiny On The High Seas, in fact he only had one ear, the other had been chewed off during some of his other battles with the dogs, he had lost his left ear, the pig in Mutiny On The High Seas had lost his right.



The old battler with Lu.
 Lu having a sniff.

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