Forever Soaring

I received the call I have been dreading last night. Dr. Moore kindly went in on his evening off to check on Katana and run some more x-rays. Needless to say, it was Asper and it had taken hold of her pretty badly. By the end of the day she was down to 760 grams and now regurgitating her food. He told me that she was not going to make it, but merely die slowly. I made the very difficult decision to have her put to sleep. I just could not stand to think of her suffering anymore. He assures me that she went peacefully. It still does not make it any easier. I know that we are not supposed to bond with our birds like I have, but I just could not help it. She was an amazing bird. Her artistic aerial flights were unmatched. I will miss her talking to me as I enter the mews. I will miss sitting and watching her preen after a long day of hunting. She will forever remain in my heart and be missed forever.

Update

I was able to speak with Dr. Moore last night at great lengths about Katana's condition. She is still having trouble breathing and would probably be dead if not for the oxygen that she is on. We discussed her hunting weights from season to season as well as her her performance for this season. Her red blood cell count is fine...this pretty much rules out the mid-winter anemia as originally thought. He has sent off blood work that might give us more answers, but the outcome looks pretty bleak. Basically, we do not know what is wrong. He did say that she is eating and keeping her food down which is great. He personally feeds her golf-ball size amounts of quail which she is digesting just fine. The main problem is the breathing. I know that as soon as she quits eating then it is over, but I will keep my fingers crossed. She is stubborn and hard-headed, one of the things I loved about her the most. I hope that her personality keeps her fighting long enough for Dr. Moore to find out what is causing this. If anyone can, he will. The DFW falconers are truly blessed to have such a knowlegable vet to help us out in times like this.

A Very Sad Day

This weekend was not a good one. On Friday night, I weighed Katana and she was dead on to hunt the next day at the mini-meet. Problem was, Friday night it got very cold and I did not account for it. The next morning she was 20 grams lower than I have ever had her. Her bate was still strong and she seemed perfectly fine. I immediately fed her 40 grams of food and loaded her up in the car. A few hours later, I pulled her out to fly her. She immedately took off the fist and flew to a low perch. After letting a train pass, we began to work towards her. She then flew off again and landed on the ground. At this point I told everyone that she was done and I was just going to feed her up. I picked her up from the ground and after bating a few times she laid down on my fist. I then tried to get her to eat and she laid on the ground. I was eventually able to get 100 grams of meat into her and carried her out of the field. I took her home and perched her in the living room so I could keep a close eye on her and also because it was still very cold. She started to perk up that evening and had turned her crop so I fed her another 100 grams. The next morning however, I woke up to find her panting heavily and acting lathargic. She also had not turned her crop from the previous evening. Needless to say, I panicked. Noel was able to get ahold of Krys and he took my bird to Dr. Moores. It was unsure if she would make it through the night, but thankfully I received work from Krys this morning that she is doing ok, and even showing small signs of improvement. Hopefully she will eat today, that will make me feel even better. She is not out of the woods yet, but with Krys and Dr. Moore's expertise I know that if anything can be done, it will. I know that I need to tighten up on the weight management and keep a better eye on the weather forcast. Hopefully she will pull out of this and be ok. I will keep hoping...

Bad Blogger

With my busy schedule, I have neglected my blogging. The past few weeks have been exciting and Katana's flight style is very much different from last year. As usual, her response weight is all over the scale...thanks to good old Texas weather. It can be burning hot one moment and freezing cold the next. Katana is still stooping her prey, but has started mixing in some amazing tail chases. I have never seen her fly down the rabbits as much as she is doing this year, and I must say her success rate is greatly improving. I just love watching her evolve from season to season.
Katana's lure response is improving, and I continue to end each hunt on the lure in the field and not by the car. This is also reintroducing the hood as we leave the field, something that I had neglected last season. She is getting better at this as well, and does not hang her head and sulk anymore.
We have a mini-meet coming up this week and while I am unsure whether I will hunt her with the group or go solo, I plan on doing some marathon hunting to get her in top form for the jack rabbits at the NAFA meet in a few weeks.

Now a Believer

What an AWESOME week! I must say things started off slowly. I have been trying to find some new fields by my house and have not had much luck as of yet. Katana has gone on many "walks" though in my quest for good fields. Due to this, on Saturday when we went hunting with Sheldon, her following skills were not so great. That combined with the thick cover and sweltering heat makes hunting quite miserable. None the less, we went at it all weekend. I generally try to fly Katana until she are tired, especially on Sunday because she gets Mondays off. Historically this has not been very hard to do right after the molt. This year she is exceptionally strong though. I am converted to a true believer in free lofing during the molt now. Her feathers came out perfect and she came out much stronger.
Katana has always liked taking the long slips, and this weekend was no exception. While the majority of the rabbits were able to make it to thick cover, there were a few that didn't. Katana did not falter in these occasions. I think she also likes making me miserable because she waits until we are headed to the car to take came. By then I am hot and frustrated. In Sheldon's field she took a nice long tail chase which ended in a tumbling skirmish rewarded by a large cottontail at the end. She had a couple of other super flights, including a sweet stoop from out of a large tree mid-field. After taking her rabbit we called it a day, and went to fly Kenny's bird at another field.
Sunday I was determined to fly Katana until she was tired. I judge this by her perch selection as well as her following in the field. Just as the engergizer bunny, she kept going, and going, and going.... The first field I flew her in was very promising. There was rabbit sign everywhere, and I mean everywhere! The cover was still really thick though, and the few rabbits we did flush nearly had to get stepped on before they would flush. Once they did start running it was not long before they disappeared. That is the great disadvantage to beginning the season so early. This field should prove prosperous however, once the cover dies back. It also does not help that we were hunting in the heat of the day. Look at all the weight we sweat off though! On the way home we saw once more field that we wanted to check out. Here, with hit the jackpot. I cannot remember a time when we have flushed more rabbits in a field. The cover was not too bad either. The problem was that they were running in all different directions and Katana did not know where to look! She also has the annoying problem of ignoring everything and everyone when she fixates on something in the field. That is what happened on the first flight. She started looking hard and I moved in to see what it was when the rabbit flushed. It had the misfortune of running right towards Kat in her tree. She took off after in, upwind mind you, and after a hard tail chase I heard the familiar rabbit cries. Just like last year I walked over to her, as I am determined not to run, and made in. I had decided earlier in the day not to feed her up as I needed to cast her to change her anklets when we got home. She did get a nice step off piece and I decided to hunt her back to the car. She flew up into a tree and roused so I knew she was good to go. We started walking back to the car and immediately flushed another rabbit. She took chase but it made it to cover before she could get there. Not I am excited, so we keep hunting a little more. No much longer, she takes off to the other side of the field, in hard pursuit. It was a LONG flight, and she ended up pretty far away. After seeing her drop behind the tree that was blocking our view, I started running. I had no idea what she was chasing, but know what I was hoping for. :) There she was, on the very edge of the field, proudly sitting on another rabbit. She had complete control of it and was patiently waiting her reward. She stepped of beautifully once again to the lure and we definitely called it a day now. I am going to be very careful with this field and do not was to overhunt it to extintion like several of the others. We walked back to the car with rabbit number two in the bag and ended an awesome weekend.
Katana's flight style, as of yet, had changed dramatically from the last two seasons. She has always gained her strength from height, stooping from the sky to catch her prey. All of the rabbits she has taken this year have been from tailchases. It is interesting to see how she evolves as the season progresses. She is definitely handling the rabbits with more ease when she gets them as well. Hopefully this will transfer over when we begin hunting jack rabbits.
Katana also has new anklets equipped with some sparly bling. Her dark color makes me lose her in the trees, and after borrowing Kenny's anklets I decided to change mine. When the sun hits the jewels it is amazing how much easier it is to find her. I also like the design of the anklets much better and probably won't go back. Will post some pictures soon, as I plan on taking my camera out in the next couple of hunts.