A big start for a small dog

Sally arrived with me sort of by accident. I never had any intentions of a whippet after the death of my Lurcher bitch “Bella”. I’ll spare you the long story of how her coming to be here, but at 12 weeks old she did and from day one she never was much of a problem, in fact I often thought she was a little too quiet. I introduced her slowly to my other two Lurchers, “Fudge” my old girl now approaching 11 years old and her son “Reggie” who was 5 years old just recently. Doesn’t time go by? It seems no time since I was slipping out with Fudge on a windy night when she was barely a year old and she caught and retrieved her first ever rabbit, and that’s 10 years ago now. “Reggie” too wasn’t a difficult dog to start. Myself and David Grant took him along for the spin on one of the usual Friday nights we go lamping and gave him a few easy rabbits when he too was a little over a year old. He took it in his stride, I think missed the first one or maybe two and after making a catch he never looked back, although its only on occasion now we lamp rabbits together as with “Fudge” doing the majority of the lamping even at her old age, I tend to keep Reggie to work alongside the Teckels.

The last small whippet type bitch I owned was 6 or 7 years ago, a little blue whippet type called “Molly”, I say type as I suspect there was a dash of something in her lineage but by all accounts she wasn’t a full and true whippet, although she looked every bit of it. “Sally” is a non ped whippet, quite small and for me just how a whippet should be, I love the diminutive size of the whippet backed with the heart of a lion and lighting fast speed over short distances. “Molly” the last similar bitch I owned who was probably slightly larger and more muscular than “Sally” had outstanding speed off the mark. I used to love watching her whip rabbits straight off a ditch before they were even in first gear, or that way she would catch a rabbit almost as she passed it, scooping it up and still running with it! I did an awful lot of lamping rabbits with “Molly” but never off the slip lead, she was a point and shoot kind of bitch! “Bella” who never made it to three years old was slightly different and would work off the slip all night and retrieve, a very natural bitch who took to rabbiting from day one.

I never rushed with “Sally” as I never saw the need. She arrived around St Patricks weekend of 2019 here in Ireland and lived inside for the first few weeks, only exercising with the Lurchers and it wasn’t really until late January of 2020 that I decided I was time for the dog to see the rabbit! I had her out ferreting on many occasions before this and I found her steady in every respect. She had been introduced to ferrets, livestock and nets quite early on, so the preliminaries where out of the way.

It was a typical lamping night when we first set off, and chancing my luck I set off for the first field “Fudge” had done her first lamping stint in as a young bitch and came off successful, so I was hoping “Sally” would do the same.

She was a little nervous as we walked and kept tight to my leg which was unusual. I realised that with all the raking the fields in the day, ferreting and exercising with the bigger dogs and Teckels, she had never actually been out at night and was taking it a little strange.

I reached the crest of the hill in the dark, keeping and as quiet as possible and hoping as I went over and gave the light a flick there would be a few Ruby eyes shining back at me and hopefully one or two would sit long enough that I could get “Sally” sighted let her see what this nocturnal hunting business was all about. I light up a rabbit for her reasonably close and give her a hiss, but when I looked down, instead of looking down the beam, she was looking up at me! Then the second and even third rabbit got away without her even seeing them let alone get a run! The grass was quite thick here and in the next couple of fields I tried and even with walking up on a few squatters she still wasn’t watching the beam, so I called it a day.

Our next venture out was in a different area, tight cut grass will always give the rabbit the advantage but I wanted to see, to start watching down the beam and tonight we would be in luck. A squatter sat as tight as a penny in a Yorkshire mans pocket, his ears back over his head and I walked almost right on top of him, the lamp fixed almost him. I had little to do but move my boot and he was up and away with “Sally” tight behind. She never caught him (Or the next couple) but was now watching down the beam every time I knocked it on. I moved locations again the following night back onto the rough pasture and had every confidence of a catch her. We walked up on two or three, she watched, chased and put great effort into each one, but no strike…Another stumbling block! I had to keep the faith, she was from a good line of working whippets, both her sire and dam are worked hard, this was only a blip (Hopefully)!

Night four and I arrived on some right grass again and with 3 or four slips and no catches done I called it a night and although I was disappointed it was more for her. I rung my pal Greg and discussed with problem with him. We decided that he would come down with his Lurcher Buster and let her see him run a few rabbits. I wasn’t keen on the idea as I thought it might wind her up and make the problem worse but we agreed on the following Friday night.  The night before was a Thursday, I had been home early from work and the wind wasn’t perfect, but it was wind and I had an itch for a rabbit to scratch. I decided to give her a go and if it all went wrong then Greg’s plan was in place. I drove the short ten minutes or so to some local ground, the grass wasn’t rough but it wasn’t too tight either and I hadn’t actually lamped here before and had previously got permission so was looking forward to it. I hopped the gate and she came behind me. As walked there was little clumps of rushes here and there and a little bit ahead I spotted a rabbit sitting behind one. I walked up and got right on top of him, so tight I could see him breathing and I just let her watch and decided to let him go in his time, I wasn’t going to encourage him. Without a warning he made a break for it and “Sally” was on his scutch within a split second, she stuck tight as he jigged and weaved through the rushes, my heart in my mouth as she was so close she could have caught him by the tail, back and forth, back forth they went, Strike! The rabbit screamed as she struck him, my heart jumped and then she let go, ran a few yards, struck it again, let go, struck again and let it go again! Eventually the rabbit made it to the hedge and got away. I put the light out, sat down and whistled her back. By now I had given up, I was resigned that maybe she just would not be and decided to walk the rest of the permission for a look. I came to the corner of a field, and climbed a gate as she slipped through the bottom and as I scanned the field a rabbit was sitting well over 100yrds. I thought about for a second and decided not to bother, kept the light of and walked on down the field between the rabbit and the hedge, but just as we were almost level I flicked the light and there he was and I knew there was every chance he wanted to go where we were. I slipped “Sally” and as she close in the rabbit took off, they both jinked each other a few times and the rabbit came straight for me, so close I actually had to stand aside, she was tight on his scut and I was hoping for much as he headed straight the fence when all of a sudden she made a good strike and clamped the rabbit tight in her jaws and then to the ground. She then immediately readjusted, and took off on a victory lap around the field. I switched out the light, sat down and it took her three or minutes, but eventually she returned to me with it in her mouth, victory!