Leader of the Pack
Tammy thought it was funny that I was actually looking forward to going hunting with Chris and his buddy. I had already learned so much from him when we were looking for subjects in 'Nola.
We started out one hour before first light so we could see some nocturnal animals. We focused on coyotes and possum. Scott reminded Chris that we need to be at some rock when the sun came up.
"What now?" I asked as we stopped near a brook. We need to get to the Flat Rock quickly. We sat down to drink up on water when all of a sudden there was an ungodly noise. Suddenly there were hundreds of bats everywhere. As I clung to Chris the noise become over whelming. When the quiet returned, Scott began laughing. "So did you wet your pants Percy" he asked? I was not amused. Evidentially the joke was on me. "What the hell Chris?" "Come on Sonja so we pulled a little prank on you. You have to admit it was a beautiful sight. Those were creatures have been around for thousands of years. Their life has a pattern and we just witnessed it. The underlying purpose was to show where you can and cannot be at certain times. I had an experience like this in the county one time and my partner actually did piss his pants.
This also was to show you that some creatures have certain habits that never change. If we came past here three hours from now and found a dozen or so dead bats we would question how they died and who/what killed them."
Scott pulled out his flask and asked if I wanted a drink so I took a long swig and said "let's move out".
Chris
We were up early and in the field well before first light. I asked a childhood hunting buddy to come along. Scott was an excellent tracker. In addition to finding escaped fugitives he was a local hero for finding three different lost kids and an elderly lady who had become disoriented in the woods over the years.
After the dirty trick we played on Sonja I let Scott take the lead and work one on one with Percy. While the bigger game left more obvious signs of where they had been and where they were going, I wanted Percy to see the residue of what smaller animals like rabbits and coyotes left behind. Tracking them was similar to tracking a single suspect that we would be chasing around New Orleans
All in all it was a good day. We were rewarded by a huge afternoon meal fixed southern style. We crashed early that night. Messing around in the shower I was sure that I was going to get lucky tonight however Sonja was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow. Oh well.