I had a coonhound named Bud that met his match a few summers ago. It was a night that started out like a hundred others. I met with my friends, Wade and Gordy for a little hunting party. I had Bud; Wade brought his dog Sonny and Gordy had a dog also named Bud. We loaded our dogs and drove to the woods for the first drop. We released the dogs at the edge of the woods and they headed straight away into the section. A long time passed and we heard nothing so we decided to look for the dogs using their tracking collars. Wade picked up a faint signal for Sonny's collar to the west of us. We drove in that direction stopping along the way to listen for dogs. Finally, when we stopped at about five miles, we could hear the dogs treeing.
We hopped out of the truck & headed towards the dogs. They sounded like they were treeing hard. On our way, the woods started thinning out & then turned into pasture. Soon we could see that the dogs were not treed at all but instead they had a coon bayed out in a pothole. This raccoon was swimming just out of reach of Bud and Sonny. I could see that this was going to be trouble & I wanted a stick to keep the coon away while we caught the dogs. I ran back to the edge of the woods to find my stick and then headed for the pothole. I was winded as I got back just in time to see Wade catching his dog Sonny.
Now it was just Bud and the coon out in the water. The coon was floating on his back and looked as if he was taunting Bud, coming in close and then swimming out. Bud followed a little farther each time and soon he was swimming after the coon. The coon led Bud out in the deep water and then he turned back on Bud. By the time Bud realized he was in trouble it was too late. The coon had him by the back of the neck and he drove Bud under with his front paws.
When I saw this I went a little crazy. I started walking into the pothole swinging my stick. Wade let Sonny go in hopes that he could help Bud. Soon I was swimming, my waders were filled with water. Now I was in trouble & I had to turn back toward shore. I was exhausted when I got out of the water. I could see Bud floating belly up only a few feet from shore now but I was too tired to try and reach him. Gordy jumped into the water and he was able to grab hold of Buds leg and swing him towards me. I grabbed Bud and pulled him up on the bank. I then turned back and caught Gordys hand and pulled him to shore. Sonny was still in the water swimming out after that coon just like Bud had. Again Gordy jumped into the water just in time to catch Sonny's' back leg. Sonny is a strong swimmer and he was now taking Gordy with him out to the deep water. I was just able to catch Gordys hand and pull him and Sonny back into shore.
Gordy, Wade and I stood there; the coon left the water at the far shore and ran off across the pasture. Bud lay in a heap, eyes open and glazed over, tongue hanging out in the dirt & not breathing. I lifted him up by the back legs & water ran out of him. I pushed on his side a little to try and get him breathing but this did not do any good. I let him go and all I could do was look at him lying there. Wade had another idea though; he knelt down and picked up Buds head. He cupped his hands around Buds snout put his mouth to his hands and blew a little air into Bud. I could see Buds chest rise as Wade blew. About the third time Wade did this I heard a little groan from Bud as the air was let out of him. He was still alive! We had to keep helping him breath for a few minutes but finally he started breathing on his own. It was quite a few minutes before we were able to get him to stand. He was coughing up water pretty good & he had a dazed look for the rest of the night.
Bud was in pretty rough shape for a few days after that. I finally took him out hunting about a week later & he treed a coon. I knew he would be OK then.