Friday I took Roy up to hunt with the kids. We all went up to Travis' (the cousin) and sent Roy & Pearl down the treeline. Pearl started chasing a rabbit & I told the boys to just keep walking away from her. Roy came back to check her out. I tapped him and sent him back down the treeline. He sat down and treed a few hundred feet ahead of us. Pearl came in but didn't settle. It was really dry right there & she kept milling and checking. Finally I just caught her and tied her back. We brought the coon out & let her just sit back and watch Roy. Maybe it did her some good. I told the boys we should move after making so much noise & we headed back to their place. There is a lot more to this story, click on the link below - Continue reading "Getting Strong"
We sent the dogs south on the path by the pothole. I treed a couple easy ones with Mabel earlier this spring but the coon have been making themselves scarce lately. I thought that all the frogs should have brought them back in by now. Guess I was wrong. Roy kept heading south and Pearl split off to the west. We drove around and Pearl was at the west approach. When we got out Pearl came running and then kept right on going. The boys didn't know they should have grabbed her when they had the chance. We drove around some more following her with the tracker. She moves around pretty fast. Soon her signal was coming from the direction of the boys house. We headed down the road and sure enough there was Pearl. This time the boys didn't waste any time catching her. Whew! She smelled! Somewhere Pearl had gotten her first skunk. We drove the rest of the way to the house and were putting Pearl and the farm dog Sage in the kennel. Billy got distracted and Pearl made her move. She was on the loose again & she didn't want to get caught. The farm dog Sage took off with her. I figured that Pearl would play a little, we'd catch her & then I'd go find Roy. What I didn't know was that the skunk that Pearl had gotten into was right in the little clump of woods by the house. Pearl wanted to get out so bad cause she knew it was still out there. So after a few minutes I heard her baying the skunk. To make matters worse, now Sage was helping her. After quite a bit of manuevering I was able to corner Pearl and get a leash on her. I also found the skunk. It was dead by now. I took Pearl over there and scolded her before heading for the road. I handed her over to the boys & told them to get some tomato juice. Two cans! One for Pearl and another for Sage. This took about 2 hours and I had no idea where Roy was the whole time. I drove around the section and started tracking. I picked his signal up in the next section. I drove through the new houses and parked at the last one. I could hear Roy treed west of there. He was fairly deep. I didn't know if I could get any closer than I already was so I just started walking. I finally came up on a big swamp or lake & I could see Roy. I also could see his coon up the tree. I might ahve been able to get to him but I didn't feel like it. I started calling Roy. He thought about it a little & then he came off to me. I was very pleased with the way he did this. I could tell he was tired. He really wanted to get in the truck and lay down. I don't know how long he had treed but I suspect it had been a while. I really think Roy has made some improvements. I wouldn't want to nite hunt him yet just because. I guess I'd like to just keep hunting him and let him get solid. I think he could compete right now though if I didn't care about setting him back. As for Pearl, we need to teach her to come when called. I guess I'll pick up some rope and make her start wearing "the collar". She's way too powerful to let run wild.
Posted by bruceo at May 1, 2004 01:45 AM