It was Sunday morning about 8:30 and the pups were full of energy so I decided I better at least take them for a short walk, so started down the road thinking to just go down a mile and cross up a wash and back on a trail... around 3 mile loop. The dogs were just staying on the road and seemed to be enjoying the cool morning air. We had gone around a 1/4 mile when I looked down and noticed two lion tracks as clean as if it had just left them. So I called the dogs over and told them “seek!” At first they just sniffed around then looked at me like I was crazy. So I again said “seek! Seek!” and started walking in the direction of the tracks. They tried again and this time their tails started to wagging. I could tell they had it so I called up my dad and told him I think we may have a chance at a lion. I then remembered Charlie telling me his dad really wanted a lion. About this time I smelled skunk... So I knew then that my culls might be able to catch this stinky skunk lion and called up Charlie's father Charles. He arrived and we were still moving, really slow but moving the dogs were heading up into some nasty country but paralleling a hiking trail so I told Charles to just stay on the trail and follow along were the walking is not so bad. Charles and my father took the trail while I followed the dogs above.
They trailed the lion about 2 miles and I took a few pictures, not as many as I should have but some actually turned out decent. I Found tracks a few times during the trailing and remembered to take pictures. Didn’t get pictures of the first tracks though... Got a few pictures of the dogs tailing, they also show the burned area. I kept fairly close to the dogs as they were not moving the track very fast. Then I could hear them barking good over the next ridge.
Got to the top and saw Jake(4.5 year old Lab/walker) and Rose(3 year old English coon hound) barking up a cliff but could not see any lion so I called them and circled above the rocks. Only Jake came but I was joined by Buster(2.5 year old black mouthed curr) and Buddy(10 year old lab/rott) was still on my heels. Jake surged ahead and was barking like he was looking right at it. Buster and Buddy ran ahead and I stepped around the corner and saw three dogs barking at thin air. Then I noticed a crack in the rocks about 5 feet from me and edged out so I could see into it. There he was, a nice lion with a good sized head. I only got a few seconds glimpse because as soon as the lion saw me it leapt out of the crack and bounded down the cliff face where Rose was still barking. I ran to the edge in time to see the lion running along a ledge on the next big cliff face, about 100 yards away with Rose in hot pursuit.
Every thing got quiet except for my two new 7 month old redbones, Red and Ace. They were running all about smelling the lion and baying very excited but not wanting to climb the cliff faces like the older dogs. Jake finally figured out that he could not get down that cliff and caught up to me so I watched him trail where Rose and Buster had gone on the next cliff face and had my camera out(wish I had thought fast enough to catch Rose and the lion). Then Rose and Buster started to bark treed but sounded far away.
Turned out to be the next cliff face another 1/4 mile away. I came in below and took some pictures of Rose and Buster with lion above me ... then moved to the top. Got a few pictures from there but then I got worried that my dogs might fall off the cliff in there attempts to get closer to the lion so called them off and me and the dogs moved below the lion. Sadly none of the pictures tuned out with all the dogs baying. But I did get a nice picture of the lion before it lay down behind a rock and went to sleep. Meanwhile my father and Charles were climbing up the hillside from the trail. I took a few pictures of their progress, took them close to two hours to climb 1/2 mile up to the cliffs. After they arrived I didn’t take anymore pictures as I was too busy controlling dogs so they would not get killed following a dead lion off a cliff.
Charles was very happy with his lion even if it smelled like a skunk... He has been wanting to get a lion for 40 years. While we were gutting the lion I cut open the stomach to see its last meal... a Skunk! ewwww!! We likely saved the lives of a lot of skunks
