An unexpected predator
libre 11
In the morning there was a commotion in Barthugai village - a wolf had run over a donkey during the night. Dogs came barking from all the yards, and the unexpected predator retreated into the thicket of tugai trees. The dog pack chased him to the edge of the forest and trampled the traces of the predator.
The whole day there was only talk about the wolf. The gamekeeper of the hunting inspection, of course, had nothing to do with it, but the villagers looked at him reproachfully.
A gamekeeper watches for a wolf
For two nights the gamekeeper guarded the wolf near the corpse of a donkey. But the beast did not come. The second night was especially cold. The autumn wind made itself felt in the morning. The huntsman froze to the bones and could not take away the shivering.
A week later there was another commotion - a wolf entered the sheep barn at night, bit two sheep, but did not kill any of them. In horror the sheep hit the walls and many of them were bruised. The shepherds drove the animal away with shots and with difficulty calmed the sheep.
Dogs from the village came to the noise and again pursued the beast to the tugai. But none of them dared to chase the wolf into the thicket. There she would have been unfortunate! The gamekeeper carefully examined the bitten sheep. The wounds were not deep. The wolf had grabbed the sheep by anything, but had not managed to kill and gnaw any of them.
- A very old kaskyr! - The shepherds shook their heads.
The huntsman spent the whole day wandering through the thicket behind the village, but did not find the wolf. Exhausted, he returned to the cordon in the evening and fell asleep like a dead man. At midnight he jumped up at the frightened cry of his wife:
- Get up, Eugene, hurry up! Something is wrong in the yard!
In an instant the sleep was removed as if by hand, - the huntsman jumped out on the porch. And in the yard was boiling fierce dog fight!
In the moonlight it was visible how his Tuzik fiercely chewed some stranger.
A wolf! - the huntsman realized and rushed into the house to get his gun.
But when he ran out on the porch again, there was no one in the yard. The dog's barking was hushed again near the edge of the riparian forest. Soon, limping, Tuzik came back with his tongue out. There was blood on his ear. The huntsman hardly waited until morning and carefully examined the scene of the fight. Two gray wisps of fur were clear proof - the wolf had been in the huntsman's yard. This is too much!
- Do not tell anyone, or they will laugh!
- punished the huntsman to his wife and without breakfast rushed with Tuzik into the tugai.
A wolf hides in the tugai
At the very edge of the forest was seen how at night the dogs slowed down with their paws with all their running, and under the first bush there was a well-marked trace of a huge paw of a wolf, which was not trampled. Only one. And further on the fallen leaves there were no traces visible. The huntsman walked through the thicket in the direction of the trail for a long time. There was no sign of the beast.
Tuzik behaved calmly. He was more interested in hares and pheasants. Suddenly, through a small spring in a dense thicket, the huntsman saw clear failures of large wolf tracks. In two huge jumps the beast crossed the spring and with the third jump dived into the thicket. Fresh drops of liquid mud were left on the twigs. The wolf had just run through here.
- Tuzik, here!
The dog obediently came out of the bushes and ran up to his master.
- Take it, Tuzik, take it!
-He led the dog to the trail. Tuzik calmly sniffed the fresh tracks, but did not growl and did not bristle, but wagged his tail, raised his hind leg and.... sprinkled urine on the trail. After that he was no longer interested in wolf tracks. The gamekeeper couldn't understand anything.
- Take it, Tuzik, take it!
- He sent the dog along the tracks, but Tuzik looked at his master in surprise, tucked his tail guiltily, and did not move. So the puzzled huntsman returned to the cordon.
Meeting of a shepherd with a dragger
The next day there was a strong wind. An old shepherd was herding a flock not far from the village. The sheep wandered slowly in the wind with their heads down and nibbling the grass. The wind blew through the poor clothes of the shepherd, and he decided to take shelter for a while in a dilapidated dugout.
But as soon as the old man stepped through the door he was frightened: there was a wolf sleeping on the floor of the dugout with its back to the entrance! Because of the wind noise he could not hear the man's footsteps. The old man ran up to the sheep. He had no gun. What to do? Run after the huntsman - but how to leave the sheep alone? Carefully the shepherd began to drive the flock towards the village.
The sheep were reluctant to leave the pasture. The old man looked back at the ruins and was stunned: a gray animal with alert ears was sitting on the doorstep, looking at the man and yawning quietly. The old man's legs shook in his knees, and he tapped the sheep mercilessly on their backs with a stick. The flock moved toward the village. The wolf did not pursue the sheep.
A feral sheepdog
Half an hour later, a huntsman ran up to the ruins with a rifle in his hands. But a large gray shepherd dog with a tucked tail flashed from the door with a gray shadow and rushed into the thicket. Two hasty shots in pursuit did not stop it. So that was it! A feral dog was pretending to be a wolf, and it must have been afraid of people with guns.
In the ruins of the hut there was a whole storehouse of hare and pheasant leftovers. The sheepdog had adapted to catch them at night. Whether the shots had frightened the feral dog or the huntsman had slightly wounded it remained unknown, but Barthugai was calm.
