The Ramos dining room was filled with some laughter the evening after Tyra and Heather had taken Ursula Vandergrift on their hunting trip. It provided a few chuckles largely over some of the tricks that Tyra had pulled to get Ursula to go along with it and with what happened in the course of the hunt. It also then had Jeremy and Heather's hatchlings Mason and Anna-Poly, along with Jonah and Manuel, seated in their highchairs and chirping along, as though they were laughing along with their parents. It made for an amusing family gathering.
"Dignity and grace," Jeremy snickered as he chewed on a piece of meat while looking over to Heather as she'd gone over the line, "that was really what she said?"
"Word for word," Heather laughed along and rubbed Anna-Poly's cheek with her other hand, "one would think she would have read more of Rex's papers on Tyrannosaurus, given that that was the species she chose to convert to."
"In all fairness, though," Rex commented, "dignity and grace can be fairly relative. Large carnivorous dinosaurs, like Tyrannosaurus Rex probably weren't going to be hopping around like a smaller Theropod... like Velociraptor would, but that's not going to mean that it can't have grace for its size. I mean, to a degree, lions and tigers are often seen as fairly graceful, despite the fact that their size and weight limits what they could do regarding tree climbing, and so on."
"Yes... but they also still rely on a great deal of power deal animals quite capable of killing it," Tyra countered, "they may be graceful for an animal of its size, but that line of "dignity and grace" seemed to be more about trying to be nimbler than what she would be."
There were a few nods that came along with it as well, but there were still muted laughs as they continued to eat.
"She did make a kill on the pigs you were going after, right?" Rex asked, "or did you actually trip her?"
That came back to the heart of the issue, in that feral hogs had become a nuisance animal that wasn't native to Texas. They did damage to ranches and other aspects of the native fauna, which had led to a sort of informal business arrangement between many Texas ranchers and the predatory Dinotopians. The state had no set season for feral hogs, and they could be hunted at any time of the year, though hunters did have to pass certain hunter safety courses and would obviously need permission if they didn't own the land. The latter part was part of the business deals that had been set up. The ranchers would call into Dino City to report pigs giving them trouble and the Dinotopians would get the opportunity and permission to go hunting. Times were also arranged to make sure that there wasn't anyone else on that ranch hunting with a gun.
"She helped with the chase after the three hogs that were brought in," Heather answered vaguely.
"Though whether or not she was tripped was a different issue," Tyra added, "the first hog we went after ran through a small creek and there were some fallen logs in it..."
"So, she tripped but wasn't tripped by either of you," Jeremy surmised.
"And bringing things back to the dignity and grace comment," Tyra smiled, "and she went down with a great splash and got a rather expensive looking "golf suit" wet and muddy as well."
That raised a few more chuckles, and almost amused chirps from the hatchlings. Though Rex did bring things back to a fairly serious tone.
"As funny as a lot of this is... it'd probably be a good thing she didn't make a kill," Rex commented slowly, "for while there is no official season for wild pigs in the state, one does have to take the basic hunter safety course and/or purchase the license, depending on whether or not they have already taken the course. And if you tricked her into coming along... that could come back to bite you if she says she made a kill to the wrong person and doesn't have the license to allow for it."
"I know, dear," Tyra said slowly and looked down and then nuzzled Jonah and Manuel before continuing, "but she's been so... snooty about things that there had to be something that might, you know, get her to recognize where she could stand to change things. Particularly when at times there are plenty of cases where one would think she actually would want things to change for the better for her. Including chasing after that one patrol officer that became a Tyrannosaurus Dinotopian."
The others nodded for a moment. Ursula was among that group of wealthy people that came into Dino City and essentially wanted "mansions" built, even though the town that had been built had been more for middle class homes and likely incomes. They ultimately got their way but had to buy up several homes that had been built, have them demolished and then have the mansions built to replace the more modest dwellings they couldn't accept. Dino City didn't stop them from doing it, but they also didn't subsidize it so that Ursula and the others had to pay for it out of their own pocket. It left a fair number of people rather resentful of Ursula and the other ultra-wealthy new Dinotopians and some of their other actions didn't help.
But Ursula did ultimately show attention and interest in a young officer that had joined the Dino City PD and became a Tyrannosaurus Dinotopian as part of the requirements for joining that force. This officer, however, hadn't really wanted Ursula's attention and this had often brought Ursula to the club where Tyra worked. It reinforced a lot of the perceptions of snobby behavior on Ursula's part, but it also betrayed the wider desire for acceptance, possibly because there weren't that many ultra-wealthy people that had decided to come to Dino City and had engaged in behavior similar to Ursula's. To Tyra, it then seemed like a reasonably easy fix and to get Ursula to see things in a slightly different light, and maybe address the issues of snobbery that Ursula had made pretty obvious that she carried.
That had made getting Ursula to a point where the trick would work difficult, as she wasn't going to just trust someone who served as a greeter, waitress, bar tender, and "professional socialite" at the club that Tyra worked at in an easy and open way. Working to get there took a bit of time and drove the part of Tyra's mind that was willing to work with some of the tricks that had been used to help Heather reform herself back when the existence of Dinotopians was new. Tyra figured it would serve as the perfect object lesson in how certain things that the “common” Dinotopian enjoyed were not bad things, and that included things like hunting.
And that even applied to other Animalians as well. The only difference was that the Dinotopians had found a way to get deals that enabled them to even make some money off of hunting, and particularly hunting the feral hogs that ran around large parts of the state. And Heather and Tyra weren't the only ones. Rex and Jeremy took some hunting trips at times when they had a day or two off. "Sargeant Slash" took time off to go hunting. Mr. M even took his friend that became an Allosaurus Dinotopian hunting at times, and many of the larger ranches often paid for the feral hogs removed. It fed all the heavy predatory instincts that all predatory Animalians had, and Heather remembered being extremely strong when she first became a Dinotopian. That was in part what allowed her to accept Tyra's idea to take Ursula along on the hunting trip in that Ursula had to be feeling those same urges and being able to let them out might actually do her some good.
"Some of that is actually funnier than what you've said on her hunting prowess," Jeremy still snickered, "there was one day where I was walking into work... and she seemed intent on just following after him while he was on patrol, and he looked like he was looking for any excuse to get away but couldn't as his assignment for the day had him on foot."
"Showing a different definition of hunting," Heather chuckled, "though, my guess is that some of grandma's idea is some lesson in humility. As it's her snootiness that is the real problem."
"Do you think that'll work?" Jeremy wondered, "as I'd imagine that getting hit by a garden hose borrowed from the rancher who let the three of you hunt on probably wouldn't make her happy... though it is funny."
"Maybe," Tyra commented, "she got it first because she fell in mud and was already a bit wet from the creek as well. But Heather and I showered off a bit too... to get the worst of the blood off from the two hogs we'd killed."
Tyra remembered that clearly. She and Heather made their kills in the way that they'd found was the most effective for them. They benefitted from the surprise that Ursula had given the pigs to jump them before they could turn and charge or escape and then finished the hogs off with a bite to the neck that crushed their spine. The force of the bites delivered, though, did draw blood and that had to be cleaned off. But to a degree, that was also still where satisfying those instincts would be something beneficial for Ursula and helping her get over certain things, and the fact that Tyra and Heather ended up getting a "cold shower" to clean blood off their muzzles and claws provided enough that hosing Ursula down wasn't just some kind of prank on her. The only difference between the two was that Ursula had gotten wet and muddy as a result of her fall while Tyra and Heather had gotten a bit bloody after making their kills.
"And how did the pig she went after die?" Rex wondered, "if you and Heather jumped two others."
"That was ultimately almost as funny as Ursula tripping over a submerged log in a muddy creek," Tyra chuckled, "none of the three were monster sized hogs. They weren't small, but they weren't monster sized and Heather was the one to track them down and we found them laying in some brush just in front of the creek."
"Grandma then went to the east of the creek and I moved toward the west of the position where we all were," Heather added, "from there the plan was that Ursula would flush them and essentially chase them into grandma or me. One might escape... and to a degree, I expected that since grandma tricked Ursula into tagging along on the hunting trip, but it would remove the pigs from the ranch, which is what the rancher wanted."
"But the third one didn't make it..." Jeremy commented.
"Correct, because those pigs had been rooting around the area," Tyra nodded, "and it was a bit wooded and the ground was wet, and I mean more than just in the area where Ursula fell in the mud. So, they'd been rooting for roots and tubers and all sorts of other things. Which also mean that these pigs had to have been pretty comfortable in that area for a few days. And when I gave the signal for Ursula to flush them... they ran across the river and then toward an area they'd dug up."
"They ran?" Rex wondered.
"As stated, they weren't monster sized hogs," Tyra answered, "and while she isn't the size of a mundane Tyrannosaurus, she is more than big enough to make average sized feral pigs decide to run."
"They then didn't notice grandma and I coming out from our ambush points and that allowed us to make our kills," Heather licked her lips for a moment, "but that redirected the surviving hog to head back toward the creek and the areas where the pigs had been digging. Though it's at that time that Ursula tripped and fell in the mud."
Jeremy and Rex looked on as Tyra and Heather continued to recount the events of the hunt.
"But apparently Ursula's rush and our grabbing the other two, the last pig wasn't paying that close attention and was running blindly," Tyra continued, "it stumbled through the ground they had rooted through and then moved to jump over another fallen log, only to find a badger den on the other side of the log. It's forelegs and head fit in the hole, but the rest of it didn't and its momentum kept the rest of the pig's body going. And here, the ground was a bit dryer and wasn't as soft as it was by the creek. The pig essentially broke its own back trying to get away and died of the injuries. Thankfully the badger either wasn't in that burrow or wasn't awakened by the hog falling into its hole and breaking its back in the process. Ursula retrieved it and we then carried them back to the truck."
"And up until she tripped going through the creek," Heather added in, "I think she actually looked rather... pleased with how her part of the hunt had gone. So... in that, some of the plan worked a bit. Even if she didn't succeed in the "grace and dignity" part of the hunt."
"Or in actually making a kill," Tyra said slowly, "though, if she was enjoying what part of the hunt, she was in... I'd also take that as a victory."
"And then spraying her with water later?" Jeremy asked, earning a few more laughing chirps from the hatchlings, almost as if they fully understood the conversation going on.
"That was more providing some torment over her being snooty," Heather laughed, "along with keeping the truck clean, as she did get rather muddy as a result of the fall when she moved to flush the pigs."
"And as said before... we had to clean the blood off ourselves, so it wasn't like she was the only one to get a cold shower," Tyra added.