Again THANKS to everyone for their Prayers and support!
With Dad on the mend we planned a CatHound Safari to the East Coast. Before I get into this trip, let me recap 2010. We did not Hunt after September 15th, and not again till just before Christmas. The total of Cat caught, treed, put in the ground or in a brush pile ended up @ 169 with 1/3 of these weighed. Not a bad year considering that we gave the Bobcats the Fall off.
Dad and I left Arkansas on Saturday the 15th of January headed to Mississippi to make a couple of hunts with Mr. Harold Parker. Mr. Harold is one of the five men whose packs are comprised mainly of “Clay “ Hounds. Dad was anxious to see how the Dixie branch of the family was performing.
As the young man who posted from Tylertown Mississippi was telling you all, Hurricane Katrina has devastated the mature Timber along the Gulf Coast. This has made the already tough to catch MS Bobcats even tougher. Where Mr. Harold is hunting the Briars have come up into the re-growth and blown down trees to such an extent that even the smallest of grass snakes must search to find a way into the tangled mess…..yet when hotly pursued, a Shorttail makes straight for the worst of the worst.
Deer season was winding down when we arrived so instead of Mr. Harold’s usual morning hunts we went at night. At home in Arkansas we had been having lots of trouble with BAD Scenting conditions…..and it looked as if they were following us East.
On Saturday night we managed to trail and run and trail and run a Cat for over two hours and probably put it up a tree….as much trouble as these nice Hounds were having the outcome remains in doubt.
On Sunday night it looked like more of the same. Mr. Harold’s Tammy and Candy (littermates to our Rivers and Corky) trailed two for 30 min or so then the Track just evaporated. Finally his Rig Dogs struck hot “and the Race was on”. Mr. Harold has some 1 ½ year olds out of his Candy and Dads Rip (who now resides with DerekE in Texas) along with Princess and Chiquita, and some 9 month old full sibs to Tammy, Candy and Chiquita….Folks for 30 min they put on as good a session of the “CatHound Opry” as a Houndsman could want to hear!
Hair pulling was on the Hounds minds as there was never a check lasting over 30 seconds. However Dad had warned that with Bad scenting conditions if the Cat ever quit running and went to Squatting, things would become difficult…..this was not out of his mouth before it happened. The first long check then a running track became a trailing track.
Tammy, Candy and Harold’s Wildman worked hard and were soon back under the Kitty and the ROAR was about to Crescendo when this Cat decided to order up option 2 from the “Fly. Climb, or Die” menu.
Some great Southern Hospitality, unbelievable Great meals from Mrs. Dawn and fine Hound work under trying Scenting conditions; Dad was pleased that Mr. Harold’s pack was maturing so well as he has only one Hound over 4, the rest being under 4. Dad assured him that this time next year he will be “expecting” to catch every Cat Jumped, not just hoping to catch the Cat.
From Mississippi we traveled East to meet some new Friends who Bobcat Hunt in South Carolina. Mr. Toddy Smith and Mr. Mike Johnson are very good friends of Mr. Ben Hardoway’s. We have been hearing good things about them for several years, so after some phone calls this little visit was arraigned.
Mr. Toddy has as fine of a Wild Bobwhite Quail farm as we have ever seen…..and if you do a good job on raising Quail you will also raise Rabbits and Rats…..if you have these chances are Shorttails will not be far!
Another fine dose of Southern Hospitality and nice Hound work helped to overcome some more BAD scenting conditions (the Quail Hunters were having trouble too) and Bad weather.
We ran a Cat in the rain the first night with Mr. Toddy’s Hounds. The next day we took Dads and demonstrated the Rig Hounds in action. While somewhat skeptical at first, when we left Mr.’s Mike and Toddy were believers that Hounds can Rig and then run a Bobcat in the Southeast.
That first morning we had to wait for the rain to let up before starting, then hit a Bad track but trailed it up only to have the Cat pop up. Then more rain.
The second morning we went to a section of the Plantation called the Burnt Pines. We struck several cold or untrailable Tracks. Then we hit one where Corky and Brandy could bark a little where the Cat had fed around the edge of a field. It looked for a while like we were going to throw this Track away….then Choc opened into the Pines that he had found the direction the Cat was traveling.
For 20 plus minutes the Hounds moved the Track, warming it up the whole time. Then Cherokee and Cimarron screamed that the Cat had stopped to listen to the racket coming up it’s back trail…bad mistake on the Cat’s part. For about twenty minutes the Pack was in FULL CRY….the Garmin showed the Race headed to a small Blacktop rd. Mr. Mike headed around and was there to stop traffic if the Cat crossed. Well it did and across the road was a net wire fence requiring me to help most of the Hounds across. The Hounds left the fence barking every breath.
Mr. Toddy then told us that this was the only track (600 acres) that he could not get into….it was OK to run in it but he did not have a key to the gates. We paralleled the Race up a field for 10 minutes of so then we came to a main road leading into the property the Race was being run in. The Race was about 200 yards from us and about to cross the road we were parked on…Dad said to Blow the truck horn and to call the Pack in before they got away from us…..I did and in 6 minutes of so had 9 Hounds in the Truck. Mr. Toddy said that he had never seen hounds in Full Cry be called off of their Game….he was impressed that Dad had such a handle on his Hounds. He now believed us when we talked about loading the Hounds when we have a Sow run down and want to leave her to run again.
That night we hunted close to Camp and started a Cat Hot and had a heck of a 45 min race before this Cat started ducking and squatting in some bad briars along a drainage. I went in and started whooping and made the Cat leave out and the Race was back on….it ended with the Cat probably taking a hole in a Tank levee.
Two Great Gentlemen with darn nice Hounds and the closest thing to Bobcat Heaven that we have seen.
We headed South on Thursday, January 20th and rested up Friday morning. Friday night Dad was ready to go south and Hunt without any distractions……just watching and listening to his Hounds work.
Well….I was concerned that we had brought the BAD scenting conditions with us…..but our Prayers were answered as shortly after empying out the Hounds and putting the Rig Dogs up, Ole Choc yodeled a COLD strike. I put he, Rivers, Cherokee, Chic and Corky down….up the road they went…..nothing…..back behind the truck…..nothing. Then just behind the truck Corky and Choc went to switching…then Corky went out into the Plantation and barked.
For 30 min he, Choc and Cherokee trailed this Cat 1 ½ miles through two blocks, then Rivers and Chic began to open. I had been turning in the rest of the young Hounds as the track got better. @ the 40 min mark the Cat was jumped and for the next 2:05 hrs the “Opry” was as good as it gets.
Folks find your seat in the Opry House and let me tell about this one….it was the kind that makes the Black Gold Black Dog Feed cheaper for the next week.
After the Jump the Cat tried to head north out of the block where we found her…..every time the Cat would start away, Cimarron would scream out that she had her and wanted help to hold her in this Swamp. The other 9 Hounds would oblige her Barking every breath. Rivers Big Baritone, Chics Screaming chop, Sandy’s and Cherokee’s Sopranos along with Rose an Choc with their French Horn sounding yodeling chops had the woods ringing with Sound!
The Old Ryman Auditorium in Nashville could not have made it sound any better. For twenty minutes the Cat ran up and down the ditch right beside the road….it sounded like I was going to have to prepare for a wet retrieve any minute….then the Cat hit a big hole of water at a road intersection and caused a minute or so check….Corky bellowed forth his find and the back forth, up and down the ditch resumed. At times you could not pick any one Hound….it was a continuous ROAR! Then back to that big hole of water and a Bad check.
Folks I mean a BAD check! The Garmin showed every Hound was shown swinging looking for the Cat…nothing…..2 minutes go by like hours…..5 minutes goes by like eternity. Then suddenly Rivers bellows forth the find 500 yards down and 150 yards north of the road. This Cat had swam that far up the ditch (it was shoulder deep on me) before coming out…she must have used her Navy Seal’s Scuba training as there were Hounds running up and down both sides of the ditch and they could not smell her.
In lots of cases a Bad check like this can mean a gone Cat…..but not this time Rivers continued to Bellow out until the Cavalry arrived. Then the others pitched in to get back under her.
Corky and Cherokee worked exceptionally hard to overcome her lead, however the Pack was now following the Cat, not making her do stuff she did not want to do. Perseverance and coordinated Team work allowed the Pack to make the Cat stop in a 10 acre or so Cypress Pond, where for the next hour the Race never got further than 300 yds from the truck (Thank You Garmin). Dad could hear every bark…..and man alive what BARKING….that ROAR thing again……run, roar, Cat squat, Hounds find, then run & ROAR all over again….WOW!
@ the 30 min mark in this Cypress Pond Dad said “This Cat can’t take much more”. But it did……another thirty minutes……then Chic and Rivers Bayed out that they had the Cat stopped and cornered. I had pulled on the gloves and went into make the retrieve….however the Hounds were not able to finish the job (the video will show why). Some Hound would bay and bay hard….first it was Rivers, then Choc. But not the whole Pack. Once I got into them I could see why.
The Cat was in a place that water usually stands, however due to the prolonged dry spell here in Florida, little Ty Ty and Gallberry bushes were growing from knee to waist high and as thick as the hair on one of the Hounds back. The Cat could get under this mess, backup into a Palmetto and the Hounds just could not get to her. I poked her out of this mess for another 5 to 10 minute race, 6 times over the next hour.
ViewMyVideo
Dad was in the truck, 150 yards away, fit to be tied…in years past this was what he enjoyed the most…..being right with the Pack as they work their hearts out to close the deal. As the video shows the Cat finally went into a part of the Pond a little less thick and the Race was over. It turned out to be a big 18 ½ # Sow…however this was one that the Hounds had earned the right to knaw on….they had really worked for over 3 & ½ hours.
EFC with big Sow
A GREAT start to what is turning into a truly great Hunt…..I will have more stories in the next few days including the tale of the All Day Sucker (the biggest Tom Dad may have ever run, a race which lasted 8 ½ hrs).
So Long for now and Good Running to all!
C. John Clay
Dads dogboy
