On Things Lost and Found
By Doug DuRant
October 25, 2003
On things lost and found, I am an official expert just ask my friends. I have lost many things in the woods over the years, and they take great enjoyment in reminding me. I have found a few too, but I digress.
Today after a pleasant autumn morning hunt I decided to walk over to the tree in the thick overgrown cut where I saw the buzzard sit twice last Sunday while hunting with Pete Patterson on Webb's 40 acres. I knew with very little doubt what I might find, and I did find the spike I had shot the preceding Wednesday evening. The arrow was still in the hide and through the shoulder blade next to the spine. It looked like it had broken a rib, and maybe hit the off leg bone. I would guess the arrow had 10" of penetration or so, but as the lack of a blood trail indicated, it didn't look like it exited the body cavity. All that was left of the deer was hide and bones. The carbon arrow was intact, but the point of the Wensel Woodsman broadhead was bent. I feel sure the deer died at the end of it's run. It was about 200 yards from where I shot it as the GPS reads a little over a tenth of a mile.
On the night I tried to track it I must have come within 25 yards of the down deer, and the next morning I must have been as close as 10 yards. It turned back and made it into the edge of the thick cut or I would have recovered the deer even without a blood trail. Boy do I miss my faithful beagle Penny this year. That makes 2 deer of the three I have killed, which would have been recovered with her help.
On my way back to the Van I found the glove I lost looking for the deer that night. There was what looked to be coyote hair on it. I guess one must have rolled on my glove or something. I wonder what it had thought about finding the glove?
I also found a Black Vulture which I thought was dead sitting on the ground not far from the deer. When I walked up to it, the friendless creature spread its wings, but was very weak, and I believe dying. Mosquitoes and flies were on it. I left it alone, and thought how it may have feed its last meal from the deer I was unable to recover. Life seemed hard, and this world harsh for it to be such a beautiful fall morning. What a contrast of emotions I was feeling. I was moved to sing a few lines of Amazing Grace, which seemed to calm the dying buzzard.
Without a blood trail it is very difficult to find a deer in the thick stuff. Perhaps more time searching the next morning would have helped, but I spent 2 hours in the dark without any blood sign the night before, and 2 more hours the next morning making me 2 hours late for work. Looking for and finding the deer later would add nothing to the latter.
This turn of events led me to think about the abandoned puppy Butch
Thompson has found at his hunting lease, and how hard and harsh the world must have seemed to the poor young creature. Butch's simple act of kindness has made the world so much better for the puppy. His offer of her to me to help fill the void of Penny's passing is also an act of kindness. This same puppy may prove to be the blood trailing friend I need in the future as well as a boon champion.
We must of need accept and be thankful for the kindness of others, and the comfort in our lives for it may not always be so for us. Those blessings we find before us are truly gifts of Grace. Penny was one such blessing to grace my life while she was alive, and maybe this young no longer abandoned puppy will prove to be another blessing in my life. I know my good friends are a part of the Grace in my life and I am thankful for them.
Topic: On Things Lost and Found - Doug DuRant (Read 2560 times)
