Took Roy out around 6:30 & sent him into the west part of the schoolhouse section. About 10 minutes & I heard him treed. he had a nice coon up when I got there & he was treeing hard.
Had a pretty good snowstorm last Saturday & then it has been cold. I probably could have hunted a night or two but I stayed home anyway. Looks like it will be about the same this week. I guess I'll have to start getting out again tonight.
Wade called yesterday. He said he had been noticing that Queen wasn't doing very well in the woods lately. Then he saw her having a hard time getting around in the yard. A couple of times she actually ran into things. He took her to a vet and it sounds like she has gone blind in one eye and has reduced vision in the other. He will take her to another vet now & see if they can figure out what is causing this. Wade said he can't take her out hunting anymore unless she gets cured. Queen is his only dog so this is worse for him than for most other hunters. I hope it's something that can be cured.
Mark from work wanted to try a coon hunt. I met him at Maus corner and we went to the school house section. I sent Mabel in and she stuck about 1/2 mile out. She worked down into the swamp and finally treed. We crossed one ditch the came to another ditch & Mark stayed behind. I crossed on a log but it was still swamp on the other side. His boots weren't made for water like that. I got to Mabel and she had a big swamp coon. We walked out & didn't have to cross a ditch this time? Oh well, I thought it was a little rough, but he didn't mind. Back at Maus corrner by 10:00.
Took Roy to the vegetable garden and sent him north. He struck to my left and made a big button hook of a track. Big distances between barks. I got close and something ran by me. I thought Roy would come by too, but he hooked back and treed. A big den tree. I looked it over for a long time and finally found the coon. It was outside, yet never looked at me.
Picked up Pete and went to the schoolhouse section. Sent Mabel and Josie north. They struck about 1/2 mile in. Trailed around in downed trees for about 15 minutes. Finally took a trre line out and treed toward the road. Pretty nice job to straighten this one out.
Took Roy to the easy spot. He struck a nice track and moved it about 1/2 mile. He located and treed hard. Big hollow tree, I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. But, there was a lot of thick brush at the base of this one, a pefect place for a coon to give him the slip.
Put Ruby and Roy on another hot one tonight. They caught it in the swamp grass. Before I could get there they had killed it. I'd rather have them get away and up a tree.
Put Ruby and Roy on a hot one tonight. THey caught it on the edge of a field. I went in and caught them and held them back. The coon took off and ran up a tree a little ways off. I let the dogs go again and they treed.
Put Ruby on a hot one. She chased it across a field and up a tree. When I got there she had climbed up the tree and was barking pretty hard.
I got a call this morning from a guy who had caught a coon in a livetrap. I guess they've been raiding his bird feeder & he's had it with them. I stopped by to pick it up around 7 pm. I guess he didn't know the difference, but that was a possum in the trap! The home owner described the damage to his bird feeder & I told him it was a definately a coon. I put the possum in a transport cage and reset the trap for him. I drove home and let the possum go on my street. I was just settling in for the night and I received a call. I had to go back out, the trap I just reset already had a coon in it. I loaded up Ruby and went and got the coon. I drove out to a nice field in the country where I like to let city coons go. It took off across the field at a pretty good clip. I waited a little while and then let Ruby go. She was opening on the track right away. She trailed for a few minutes and then started "tree barking". This was kind of odd because there were no trees out where she was. I headed out to her and could see right away what was up. That coon had run out into the swamp grass and Ruby had cornered it. Ruby stood there and "treed" hard the whole time. She wasn't going to grab that coon & I don't blame her. It was almost as big as Ruby and it had a pretty secure position in the grass. Anyway, pretty nice bonus night for Ruby. I have been staying home because of deer hunting. Nice to be able to get a pup out for some exercise this time of year. I can't explain it, but I like this pup more than any I've had since Mabel was a pup. She makes me feel good.
Deer hunting season opens this weekend. I've been asked to keep my dogs out of the woods for a while. I'll be hunting again about the 16th of November.
Picked up Stef and met Paul down at the old hog farm. We sent Roy and Nitro into the woods. About 10 minutes and they fell treed. We got there & couldn't see a coon. Sent them on, they grabbed another tree, same thing. Sent them on again, same thing, this time I whipped Roy a little before sending them on. They started a new track but this turned ugly. Sounded like they were chasing a deer, so I shocked Roy & they both stopped. Finally Roy got off by himself and treed. Nitro came and joined him. When we got there it was a telephone pole with no coon! I whipped Roy a little for this & we decided to call it a night. Sometimes dogs do poorly & it's just better to go home. Roy had a pretty good week, but this showed me he still needs a lot of correction. He was such a good dog, wonder what made him crack? Oh well, a few months of careful hunting will straighten him out. (I hope.)