{"id":1315,"date":"2016-04-11T19:28:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T19:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/?p=1315"},"modified":"2016-04-11T19:28:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T19:28:26","slug":"on-cooperation-between-dogs-and-squirrels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2016\/04\/11\/on-cooperation-between-dogs-and-squirrels\/","title":{"rendered":"On cooperation between dogs and squirrels"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a title=\"Harris's Copse\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pommiebastards\/26349035026\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Warm beef topside baguette and a pint of Seafarer's\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1687\/26349035026_3cef6ff663_z.jpg\" alt=\"Warm beef topside baguette and a pint of Seafarer's\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lunch<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had a lovely morning walking round Harris&#8217;s Copse; not shooting anything, but seeing a few wood pigeons who are too easily spooked. A baguette and a pint for lunch from the Robin Hood, and back in, this time via the south entrance.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as I&#8217;m in, there&#8217;s a grey squirrel running up a tree. I shoulder my air rifle and watch where he&#8217;s going. No clear shot yet, but I plan to work my way round to his tree.<\/p>\n<p>Then there&#8217;s a <em>crack<\/em> behind me.<\/p>\n<p>I look over my shoulder and some cove smoking a fag has come onto the track, two dogs running before him, making a hell of a racket. I&#8217;m against a tree and he never even looks in this direction, happily wandering down the gully with his dogs.<\/p>\n<p>My squirrel of course is long gone. I hang around for a while, trying to spot him, but he&#8217;s having none of it.<\/p>\n<p>So I go a little deeper into the woods, and find a nice tree to lean against&#8230; trying to make myself look just like any other mess of shrub. It&#8217;s peaceful: the songbirds have returned, and a couple of pigeons fly overhead, but they&#8217;re not stopping for a quick hello, welcome to my barbecue.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a title=\"Harris's Copse\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pommiebastards\/25772195633\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Come on you little buggers.\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1687\/25772195633_a45f0befd8_z.jpg\" alt=\"Air rifle with view of woods\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">I know you&#8217;re out there. Somewhere.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Scanning the trees, I see another squirrel (I guess it could be the same one; they all look the same to me) climbing a tree about 40 yards away. I&#8217;m just about to swivel round and I&#8217;m wondering if I can get a tad closer, when something down the hill catches my eye.<\/p>\n<p>Guess what?<\/p>\n<p>Some old woman, almost bent double with a huge pack on her back, is encouraging her two fat little Jack Russells, which are too damn knackered to yap, to climb the damn hill.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t believe it.<\/p>\n<p>I sit and watch her\u2014and her dogs\u2014struggle up the hill for about ten minutes. My squirrel of course is nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>But I&#8217;m sure I can hear the little bastard laughing.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a title=\"Harris's Copse\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pommiebastards\/26374928175\/in\/dateposted-public\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Celandines and bluebells\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1606\/26374928175_c17026e3bf_z.jpg\" alt=\"Celandines and bluebells in a wood\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">At least it was pretty<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had a lovely morning walking round Harris&#8217;s Copse; not shooting anything, but seeing a few wood pigeons who are too easily spooked. A baguette and a pint for lunch from the Robin Hood, and back in, this time via &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2016\/04\/11\/on-cooperation-between-dogs-and-squirrels\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,297],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-me","category-shooting-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}