Last Wednesday’s Hunt was unique, catered & cold.

Actually, the catered Tea was really good.  It was Greek.

 

 

We have a large Greek population in the Tampa Bay Area, specifically in Tarpon Springs.

So the greek food in this general area is really good.

There was a gyro bar where you could make your own, lots of hummus, and authentic greek salad.

 

Really nice…………..not suitable for my Dr. Atkins dieting though.

I settled for lettuce.

 

But my younger daughter was thrilled with the selections and the White Russians…………….I don’t think she’s had them before……………….she likes them………………I’ll have to keep an eye on her.

Long after dark the field came in…………………..but no hounds…

The staff did a hit and run at the banquet table.

 

The Huntsman and all of the Whipper-Ins had to grab some food and go immediately back out to locate the hound pack…

 

Only ONE hound came back……………….and promptly tried to help herself to a gyro…

We stayed late at the Tea, hoping for the staff to come back…

They didn’t.

Since I joined in 2001, this is the first time this has ever happened.

There are quite often errant young hounds that run amok and get on scent trails they shouldn’t…

But the whole pack (minus one)?

It’s a first for me.

 

I texted Mary Constance when my daughter and I were ultimately leaving the site………………..(I was designated driver……………….my daughter and her newly found Russian friends were doing just fine in the passenger seat.)

 

 

 

The last I heard from poor ole’ Mary Constance was that the hounds were three towns and two counties over and running on full cry after a fox!……………

Geez Louise……….!

I’m trying to get the skinny on what happened.

This specific site is huge.  One of the borders are the dreaded “railroad tracks”.

When you hear that the hounds crossed “the tracks” you know that:

…A.  They are a long, long way away from the horse trailers, and they are at the back of the fixture property and…

…B.  “The tracks” do not bode well for a prompt return of the runaway hounds (or in this case———the runaway pack).

From what I have gleaned so far, it must have been a very heady and wicked fast coyote………….that made it over “the tracks” and beyond…

***News Flash Just In***

The pack ultimately ran a fox (not a coyote) for over two hours before they could be collected in a different county…………all fifteen hounds (plus the one gyro-eating-afficionado) are now sleeping in their kennel and the exhausted fox is sleeping somewhere in his den after having gone to ground…

And Mary Constance?……………

…………she finished in her barn at 2:05 am…

…………and was up again at 5:00 am to do the morning chores…

Geez, I can’t control my Irish Wolfhounds when they are right in front of me………………much less eight couple of hounds on a vast terrain with only a horn and a voice……………..they’d just laugh at me, make an obscene gesture with their paws and walk away…………..fox hounds are great.

I love this Club…………can’t wait until I can be in the saddle Hunting again…

On that note………………………..