Season's end.

Chigger's favorite position at 5.5 months old. LOL.

Today was the last day of the 2009 - 2010 squirrel season. The morning started out with pea soup thick fog, so I waited until it burned off and the sun came out. Squirrels usually do the same, and wait until it warms up a little before they start their foraging. I loaded Bear and Chigger in the pickup and decided to go across the river to a place where I haven’t been for awhile. I reasoned that there would be less snow than on the mountain behind my house, making it easier to get around. I was right about less snow, although I did manage to get into some, but there was sure plenty of mud. I had to use 4WD to get up the road.

Once past the last of the houses, and in some pretty good squirrel country, I put Bear out in front of the truck and roaded him about a mile to sort of take the edge off. After a bit I decided to put Chigger out with him since there was no other traffic on the road. This was Chigger’s first experience roading, and he was thoroughly confused. At first he started right up the road with his Uncle Bear, and I thought this was going to be a pieced of cake, but he soon turned around and came back to the truck. I waited a minute to give him time to start back to Bear, then I happened to look in the rear view mirror and saw him running back down the road in the direction we had come from. I knew he was looking for me, and didn’t realize I was in the truck. I stuck my head out the window and called him, and he came right back and started up the road with Bear again. Pretty quick he turned around and went running back down the road looking for me again. He just didn’t seem to connect the dots, and that I was right there in the truck. He did this a couple more times, and I thought it best to put this off for another time. Chigger is still very much a puppy, despite the fact that he weighed 54 pounds the last time I weighed him which was a little over a week ago.

I put Chigger in the cab of the pickup where he could sit next to me, and he was a happy pup. I continued roading Bear until we came to a place where someone had cut a down tree out of the road. Just past that was a snow drift that no one had broken through yet. I didn’t particularly feel like being the first, so loaded Bear in the back of the truck and went back the way we had come. I took another dirt road heading back toward home, and roaded Bear, still hoping to find some squirrels which we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of. I passed another pickup parked along side of the road with what appeared to be a family gathered around it; a man and wife, and a couple of kids. The woman was carrying a shotgun, so I assume they had the same idea I had. Hope they had better luck. When I hit the paved County Road, I gave it up and headed for home, ending the season with an unsuccessful hunt. When I got home and pulled into my driveway, there was a squirrel chattering in a pine tree right across the road. Figures!