Kevin and Quenotte: a suburban year-around blood tracking team

Last night  I got a picture from Kevin Wilson showing Quenotte with a deer, which means that they must have tracked in this oppressive heat. Kevin is a year-round bowhunter and District leader for Suburban Whitetail Management of Norther Virginia. In certain northern Virginia suburbs there is year-round controlled bowhunting of nuisance deer on special depredation permits.  So Quenotte has year-round opportunities to track wounded deer. She is a lucky dog!

Several weeks ago Kevin sent some pictures with this message:

The suburban kill permit deer season continues year-round here in Northern VA. Quenotte and I were able to go out on a practice track a couple weeks ago and I thought that I would share. The picture is very blurry because we took it with a phone at night in the rain. The hunter could have found the deer without us but this particular fellow calls often to give Quenotte some practice. He knows not to walk on the scent trail and I hope someday we will help him with a difficult track. The young buck ran in a long, uphill loop and then returned downhill to expire. The total track was less than 200 yds but it certainly disproves the theory that "they always run downhill" or to water or to wherever.

 Quenotte and I also recently participated in a special hunt at the county dump last week but there were no shots that day. She was able to meet 13 of the suburban hunters who gathered after the hunt. She is a big hit with the guys.
       

I am most proud of our participation in the Fairfax County Virginia Park Hunts last fall. We tracked 3 deer and found 2. One of the finds was an easy practice run. The other find was a doe that was shot on a quartering away angle with a complete pass through. Unfortunately, the shot entered just in front of the nearside back leg and exited behind the far side rib cage. The doe expired after traveling a long distance through honey suckle thickets.

Everything else is going well. We are still working on recall but we love her to pieces.