I am not a deer hunter, but I had an incident several years ago involving a wounded deer that I will relate here in hopes that it might prevent someone from getting injured during the upcoming deer season.
Hopefully, this incident is not my allotted “fifteen minutes of fame.”
Here is what happened.
I own some wooded acreage near my home in Godfrey, Illinois. I routinely run my three hunting dogs early every morning on this property just to keep the dogs (and me) in shape.
It was the opening day of the shotgun deer season in Illinois and I was running the dogs shortly after daybreak. The dogs are Bella, a German shorthair pointer; Willie, a black lab; and A.J., an English retriever.
I should also mention that we do not allow deer hunting on this acreage because we use it exclusively for horseback riding.
During the run, Bella suddenly began barking in a high-pitched bark that indicated to me and the other two dogs that she was on the trail of something significant.
