Where There's A Will, There's A Way

As I was contemplating shooting one of the does, I noticed movement to my left and another doe, a yearling, came trotting up through some thick cover toward the feeder.  Making a mistake, I followed her movement and, before I could react, a buck was trotting seconds behind her.  He moved into the thick stuff behind the feeder and the young doe hopped over the wire for the corn.

Seeing a shape and horns moving around behind some cedars, I couldn’t shoot, but I did notice the buck was limping badly.  Maybe this was the cripple?  With none of the does displaying any interest in him, the buck then made a fatal mistake!  He turned and came out the same way he had gone into the thick stuff.

Putting the grunt call in my mouth and biting down on it, I shouldered my .270, the buck, trotting and showing very little limp, cleared a big cedar, ‘gruntt’, I centered the cross hairs on his neck, and, bam, down he went, kicked once, then laid still.

Climbing down from the stand, I walked back to the house to get my tractor to haul the deer.  Layla had heard the shot and she was waiting for me on the porch and Spike, was bouncing around, like only an excited Dachshund can, hoping that I would take him out to ‘find’ the deer.

Our little caravan, Jeep and tractor, headed out and I put Spike down about seventy-five yards, cross wind, from the deer, told him to find it and he started sweeping until he winded it.  He almost sprinted to it and took over.

The deer's right nub.  He could run and trot with very little limp, but he had a hard time walking.

Also, having mentioned before, that in February, Spike, our wonder dog, had undergone two operations to correct a bad disc, a common occurrence with Dachshunds and, at the time, it was believed that he would not walk, run or be able to find our deer again.  He lost 90% of the use of his left leg.  This deer made him two for two this season!

Sometimes nature is strange.  How can a deer, missing its hind leg from the knee down procreate and how can a little Dachshund recover from a near fatal operation, not have the use of his left leg, then return to the field, hunting downed deer?  It just goes to show that, where there’s a will, there’s a way!