Opening Act! Rilla opens up on a rabbit for the first time.

February 12 was a good day for Stan Kite and Rilla. Rilla is a sister and littermate to Ranger, the pup we wrote about a couple of days ago. Below is a story that we received from Stan last night. Thank you Stan; we could feel your excitement and could not be happier for you and Rilla.

I took a friend of mine's tractor to Sherry and Phil Ruggieri's farm a few months ago. I had borrowed the tractor and used it, but my friend wasn't going to need it for a while, so I took it to Sherry and Phil's so they could use it while working on their farm and building their rabbit enclosure.

This morning, my buddy and I met Phil at the farm so we could take the tractor back home, and I took Rilla along for the ride. Trouble was, the tractor had been sitting for a while in the cold, and refused to start. We determined that the fuel line (diesel) was frozen. While waiting for another friend to deliver a heater, Phil suggested I let Rilla run in their newly fenced six-and-a-half-acre enclosure. I thought it would be a great opportunity for her to get some exercise, something she's been lacking lately due to the snow-covered ground and cold weather.

As I poked around in some of the thickets, a rabbit bounded out! Miss Rilla spotted him, picked up the scent trail, and promptly "opened"--the first solo of her young life! The name of the tune is "SPURLAUT". She sang a BEAUTIFUL tune that had me giving her a standing ovation, as I yelled to Phil and my friend Bruce, "She opened on it", "She OPENED on it!" I could hardly contain myself, I was so excited for the little pup! To make a long story a little shorter, the rabbit somehow slipped away through a small gap under a gate, but not until Rilla belted out a few lovely verses of SPURLAUT loud and clear for all to hear. I will admit, some of the chorus was actually "sichtlaut", because the bunny was running in the open, with teckel sprinting behind, but I'll tell you, this young girl is no Christina Aguilera--she knows ALL THE WORDS! LOL

She is eight and a half months old, and today, February 12, 2011, will be a day I remember forever! After a somewhat disappointing deer tracking season due to an outbreak of EHD, this was just what the doctor ordered. We now look forward to the spring more than ever, so we can do lots more training with Phil and Sherry in their enclosure! Many thanks to them for this wonderful opportunity. I have never been so glad a piece of machinery wouldn't function as I was today! If that tractor would have started like I anticipated, we would have loaded it onto the trailer and promptly left, and my ears would never have heard the sweet song that rang out this morning. Today's event was one of those moments which took me back in time, to a distant, but very pleasant memory of my youth, at around 5 or 6 years old. It was my first-ever morning's hunt, with my grandfather and his beagle, Rip, in an overgrown asparagus field. In fact, today we were only a mile or so from the very spot where I first heard the hound's cry...talk about coming full circle!

If things go right, you just may see a new couple of faces at a field trial or two! Hopefully one will be singing, and the other just smiling ear to ear.

For more info on spurlaut in dachshunds click here.