I just happened to walk outside to let my dog out for a while and found that a critter had been eating and drinking Mattie's food.  That must have just happened cause the critter left fresh wet paw prints all over my porch so Mattie and I went a searching for the beast.  Now I have no idea how to lead a dog to search so this was my first experience but Mattie went headstrong for the search.  She tailed something towards to head of the woods but seemed to lose it when she got there.  It just donned on me now that the critter may have climbed a tree cause Mattie went to the same place three times but nothing moved.

I need to learn how to lead a dog into a search.  Wow that was fun.