Mossy Brooke, a tracking dachshund, recovers a deer for newlywed hunters in Georgia

Judy Catrett from Georgia owns Mossy Brooke whose registered name is Viola von Moosbach-Zuzelek. Mossy is a 19-month-old daughter of our Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst) and FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek. This is Mossy's second tracking season. She gets a lot of tracking opportunities at a hunting plantation managed by Craig, Judy's husband. I get a lot of pictures and stories from Judy (thank you Judy!) and will try to share some of them here. This one came yesterday.

Mossy and I have been so busy tracking wounded deer this past week, I have had very little time to email. She has recovered 15 deer so far this year and most of these have been for hunters in the area who have heard about Mossy Brooke. The majority of her recent tracks have been more difficult--ranging from several hours to 24 plus hours old. 

The buck in the picture was several hours old.  This young lady was just engaged 2 weeks ago, was shooting her new rifle given to her by her future husband, and could not find the buck she had shot.  Mossy Brooke to the rescue.  Mossy was shown the site at which the buck was shot, and she immediately picked up the track and started through the woods.  The lady told Craig that she did not think the buck went the way Mossy was tracking. Craig assured her that Mossy should be allowed to track the direction her nose was leading her.  Mossy continued with confidence and I began seeing blood. Mossy tracked to the edge of a beaver pond, which I knew we could not cross due to the depth of the water and I could not see a floating deer anywhere near.  Mossy then turned and began tracking up the edge of the pond.  Within a few minutes, Mossy had found the buck. Craig had already told Stephanie that 3 blows from the whistle meant that Mossy had found the buck.  Craig said that when they heard the whistle, Stephanie began screaming with joy and dancing. They made their way into the woods to Mossy and me.  

After some celebrating and pictures, Craig asked Stephanie's fiancé to help him pull the deer out of the woods.  Stephanie immediately interrupted and informed Craig that she would help him pull the deer out.  As it turned out, everyone had a turn pulling the deer.  This makes mine, Craig's and Mossy's day.  We helped load the deer on the 4 wheeler and then left the newly engaged couple in the woods celebrating. To make things even better, Bubba, Stephanie's fiancé had killed a buck that morning--much smaller than Stephanie's.

We have had about 5 tracks that we have not recovered the deer during the past week. Mossy tracked and worked hard, but after going about 1/2 mile without blood, I stopped her. I continue to learn from other trackers posts and definitely from John.  We plan to be quite busy this weekend as Craig has hunters and our little town is full of hunters right now.   I think Mossy has had 8 tracks this past week.

Mossy sleeps on pillow beside me every night like a little human pup. We love her so much. Thank you again for choosing us as Mossy's family.

Judy

Some of Mossy's recoveries from 2015.