A few minutes ago, I was sitting underneath the canopy, that I call the barn or shack, in the ranch. I was rubbing Duchess, who loves to get petted from me whenever I sit down on my chair. All of a sudden, Duchess's ears perked up. Then I heard a distinctive bark coming from the South Area of the ranch. Then the dogs across the street starting barking wildly. When Duchess tried to get up, I grabbed her collar and kept petting her to calm her down. I wanted to see if I was right. I started calling out to that toro (buck) at the South Side. I had readjusted my chair into the shadows of the shack, while holding onto Duchess.
After waiting and watching for a few minutes, I could make out the toro coming up my hunting trail. My heart started pumping faster... I could see that he was walking up slowly, sniffing the air, and twitching his ears. He was approximately 200+ feet away. I'm glad my goats did a good job clearing the underbrush of the jungle or I would not be able to watch this guy come up. I continued watching as he kept moving forward towards the ranch. I started to squint my eyes. So he wouldn't spot the the white of my eyes. All the while I was whispering really softly to Duchess to take it easy, easy girl, it's okay, while I was petting her coat and holding her collar with my other hand. It's a good thing I had lowered the brim of my hat to help cover up the upper portion of my face.
I watched as the toro came up to the watering hole I established. He kept looking around, sniffing the air, twitching his ears to my direction. I kept very quiet and still. Only the tip of my fingers were now, scratching Duchess's coat. I wished I had a camera or video to capture the moment. He is a beautiful toro. His rack was a dinga dos (four point), and pretty tall toro. The water basin is a little over 100 feet away from the shack. So it was really cool watching the toro drink his fill.
Then just like he arrived, he left...slowly following the trail back to the South Side.
I noticed that my ranch dogs were not barking. Hmmm, this toro has been coming in for awhile now. My dogs have gotten used to him. I'll be putting out more water basins to establish a watering hole for the binadu (deer), other than my goats. I know the wild pig drove comes up to drink every now and then.
The Dry Season is affecting their watering holes in the jungle. I'll probably have to check the water containers at Uncle Jojo's ranch at the very end of the South Area, this week.
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