On Christmas, Jody dicovers that his dogs have been running with a certain kind of animal at night. What was the animal and why didn't they want to tell Ma?
In the novel, The Yearling, Jody finds out that the dogs have been playing with Flag. This would upset Ma as she might think that the dogs would be ruined for tracking other deer. This is, of course, not the case as Jody and Penny discover the next day.