Tommy's ten-pointer was already damaged by coyotes

I am falling further and further behind with reports on our own dogs' tracking so this story is going to be short. John wrote it, and it describes Tommy's second recovery, which took place on October 23.

Paul Grave’s arrow passed through his ten pointer in the rear part of the rib cage, perforating the liver and the pancreas. There was heavy bleeding for 100 yards, sparse blood for another 200, and then insufficient blood to continue tracking.

Paul gave us a call in nearby Berne, and we decided to give young Tommy the line. We were wondering whether his fine performance earlier in the week was just a fluke or actually an indication that we had another dog of Joeri’s caliber.

Tommy had a little trouble at the beginning of the track where the searching hunters had spread the deer’s scent over a broad area. Once past last visible blood and the point of loss, I could see that Tommy was solid on the scent line He worked down over some steep terrain and there was the deer, which went 3/4 mile from the hit site. Tommy is easy to read!

The buck had been shot at 8 AM and we found the deer at 2:20 PM, not a long time, but the coyotes had already arrived. There was slight venison loss around the rump, but it was a good thing we arrived when we did. Tommy indicated that the coyotes had left recently. We can no longer assume that coyotes work only on the night shift.

This time Tommy was very apprehensive about approaching the deer. Most likely he smelled coyotes, which must had been dining on the deer before our arrival.

John with Tommy and the ten-pointer they recovered

Paul Graves, the hunter, and Jolanta Jeanneney, a photographer