OK Folks,
This Forum has been too quiet lately so lets try to find a Topic that has interest for all, has Stories that fit from all parts of the World, and will not create any Treedog vs Running Hound vs Beagle issues!
We have talked about our Great Hounds, our Honey holes and good places to find a Cat….but not much lately about those SPECIAL Short Tails (lets include Lynx and Caracal in this) that we remember challenging the Hounds…sometime Generations of Hounds.
Riverbottom you had a good one a while back, Second Nature stir them boys up in the Maine woods for a story or two. Jason Waterhouse please get Mr. Pete to tell us about one of the North East Kingdom legends; Nolte if you and Mr. Budd could tell us about one of those “Swamp Cat Pumpkin Heads” till Cat & Bear can get back from the Big Sky country to tell of the Big Tom who still haunts he and Willie it would be great.
Twist, Cobalt, George Streepy, JC, Dewey, CRA see if you can find a spare moment to tell of a Cat who has caused you to scratch your head and wonder what kind of Hounds you are feeding. Mr. Al please tell us about some of those Special Cats you and the hounds have run into over the years.
There will be NO spelling, typing or grammar tests given on this Topic….just tell us about this Ole Short Tail as if we are all around the Campfire…..heck as Hot as it is here in Arkansas, it feels like a Campfire. Now Ole Big N Blue has opened his saddle bags, reached in and produced his Emergency Snake Bite medicine. He has broke the seal on the bottle of 40 Creek and is passing it around…take a pull and tell us a Story!
Tomorrow I will tell y’all about one Dad and Mr. Johnny McNeil named Johnny Unitas; for four years this Cat produced tricks that would have made Houdini envious!
Legendary Bobcats
-
Dads dogboy
- Babble Mouth
- Posts: 1352
- Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:53 am
- Location: Arkansas
- Location: Central Arkansas
Re: Legendary Bobcats
The ol cottowood cat
My son and i had a cat we both ran for 3 years, sometimes we mixed our dogs and sometimes we ran it with our own dogs. It probably worked out that we caught it 50% of the time and the other half of time was the cats and man could it play. We could start that cat rite at a big cottonwood tree real regulary. Depending on how hot we coul rig it made the difference of where the cat would go and what kinda country it could get to before the dogs could jump it. It had briar patches,swamps,old beaver ponds,RMZ's chucked full of big blow downs, and lots of roads with 2 or 3 way junctions to choose from. The next to last day of season 2012 i struck it pretty good after dark and got it jumped in 15 mins. It went right for the old beaver dams and got ahead long enough to make over the ridge to a nasty RMZ
Where it spent around 45 mins playn with dogs. Dogs finaly got enough heat on it to push it out there and it hit a road for 1/2 to 3/4 mile. They finaly got it off the road and were in some pretty good running country. It made about 3 or 4 hard fast laps with 6 of my oldest dogs just eating on his butt. It couldnt loose em in there and hit the road again right where it left it an ran down his back track almost to where he had entered it earlier. The dogs up under it again and were riding it hard for 10- 15 mins. and everything went silent. I walked in expecting to find a 12-15 lb female and was suprised when it was a tom that size. I / we have had alot of good races with him and alot head scratching frustating races where you wonder what you're feeding. He will be missed!!!!
My son and i had a cat we both ran for 3 years, sometimes we mixed our dogs and sometimes we ran it with our own dogs. It probably worked out that we caught it 50% of the time and the other half of time was the cats and man could it play. We could start that cat rite at a big cottonwood tree real regulary. Depending on how hot we coul rig it made the difference of where the cat would go and what kinda country it could get to before the dogs could jump it. It had briar patches,swamps,old beaver ponds,RMZ's chucked full of big blow downs, and lots of roads with 2 or 3 way junctions to choose from. The next to last day of season 2012 i struck it pretty good after dark and got it jumped in 15 mins. It went right for the old beaver dams and got ahead long enough to make over the ridge to a nasty RMZ
Where it spent around 45 mins playn with dogs. Dogs finaly got enough heat on it to push it out there and it hit a road for 1/2 to 3/4 mile. They finaly got it off the road and were in some pretty good running country. It made about 3 or 4 hard fast laps with 6 of my oldest dogs just eating on his butt. It couldnt loose em in there and hit the road again right where it left it an ran down his back track almost to where he had entered it earlier. The dogs up under it again and were riding it hard for 10- 15 mins. and everything went silent. I walked in expecting to find a 12-15 lb female and was suprised when it was a tom that size. I / we have had alot of good races with him and alot head scratching frustating races where you wonder what you're feeding. He will be missed!!!!
-
mondomuttruner
- Open Mouth
- Posts: 754
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:25 am
- Location: Wisc
Re: Legendary Bobcats
Legendary cats huh..Had a bobcat that we tried to harvest for 4 years. It was a nice cat, 40# by the size of the track. Every year I would put down on the track and the dogs would cold trail to a huge pile of broken concrete in a gravel pit. Sometimes it would be a short cold track, sometimes it would be a mile or more, but at the end it would end up at this concrete pile. Now, this senario played out several times a year. One year I found this track about a mile and a half from the pile going away from the pile , I thought you (the cat) made a big mistake this time. Put the dogs down and they cold trailed to an old junk yard and I though oh great. Turns out the cat was in the trunk of an old car. Dug through the car and found the keys and cracked open the trunk and that damn cat almost flew out before I got it slammed back down, scared the shit out of me..now mind you, in 4 years I never had this cat jumped and I'm not one to kill an animal the dogs didn't chase but I had my fill with this cat and brought a fella in with a tag and he was more than pleased to shoot a cat in the trunk of a car. It's now known as the legendary junk yard cat. 43# cat....
fyi..the cat got in the trunk from a rusted out hole under the car. We plugged the hole with snow so it wouldn't just run into another car.
fyi..the cat got in the trunk from a rusted out hole under the car. We plugged the hole with snow so it wouldn't just run into another car.
-
Dads dogboy
- Babble Mouth
- Posts: 1352
- Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:53 am
- Location: Arkansas
- Location: Central Arkansas
Re: Legendary Bobcats
Great stories Mark & Mondo!
Well Folks here is the “Tale of Johnny Unitas” it takes place from 1961 to 1965 and is set in rural Washington County, Texas.
Johnny Unitas the Hall of Fame Quarterback was famous for getting away from the attacking horde of defensive linemen just when it appeared he was caught, then throwing a winning touch down; his namesake Bobcat had the same skills!
Ole Johnny lived and hunted in about a 7 square mile area of pasture land, small farms and creek bottoms. There were several small Blackjack Oak woodlots, several Dewberry patches and one large (300 acre) forested area in Johnny’s home range.
These small farms were owned and occupied by older Black families whose children were grown and off in Houston or other cities working. Each of these farms had flocks of barn yard fowl, Chickens, Ducks, Guineas, and Turkeys. Johnny loved the taste of all and was most helpful to these farmers at ensuring that only the fittest survived.
Dad and Mr. Johnny McNeil both had nice packs of Hounds. Dads were straight Bobcat hounds and Mr. Johnny’s would run both a Grey Fox and Bobcat but were broke off everything else. Both Dad and Mr. Johnny would get calls from these farmers when the Cat would decide a Chicken Dinner was needed to break the monotony of Rabbit in its diet.
This started in 1961, both Hunters were used to getting these type calls, loading their Hounds, going to the farms, putting the Hounds down, walking them down behind the buildings toward the creek (it seems all the farms were built on hills overlooking creeks), having the strike Hounds open then start trailing, jump the Culprit, have a nice race then have the Hounds either stretch the Cat or Tree it. The outcome was never in doubt if the notification was prompt….then along came “Johnny Unitas”.
Mr. Johnny McNeil was the first to feel the “Agony of Defeat” at the Paws of this Feline Houdini. He received a call early one morning from Cerci Johnson, one on these wonderful old black farmers, that a BIG Bobcat had just caught a young Turkey off the roost. Mr. Johnny told Cerci that he would load the Hounds and be right there to catch this Poultry Thief. He arrived before the Turkey’s blood had dried, put Ole Rowdy and Mary Jane down and it was not long till they had the Cats track found and were opening. He put down the rest of the Hounds and the Race was on.
Mr. Johnny and Cerci walked down towards the creek and found where the Cat had eaten the Turkey. Mr. Johnny said to Cerci “this won’t take long, a Cat cant last long on a full stomach”. Cerci replied “yawsuh that young Turkey was show nuff fat, Ise was having my eye on him for Thanksgiving dinnaw”. Well fat Turkey or not this Cat had not read the script as to how this was to play out.
The Race went across and down the creek then up into the large track of oaks (in those days Dad and Mr. Johnny followed the hounds on foot everywhere as roads were few and far between). Mr. Johnny followed the Hounds and Cerci went back home to his farm chores. Well, the race was approaching the 30 minute mark and was sounding real good. Mr. Johnny thought that hair pulling was immanent…..then quiet, well the Cat is up Mr. Johnny thought, “Ole Rowdy will locate him in a minute, then I will knock him out and get home to work”.
But such was not to be….after a few minutes the Hounds started trailing headed East. They trailed this direction for over a mile, then crossed a Farm to Market highway, went down to a creek bottom and into a bad Briarpatch. Shortly the Race was back on……and it was…for a while. Then the Cat hit the Creek swimming up it for several hundred yards before coming out and commencing to strike that Trot that all bobcat hunters dread. When the Hounds finally found where the Cat had gone too much time had passed. Now instead of getting home in time for work (Mr. Johnny owned and was chief cook and bottle washer of an Old Texas Beer joint/café), he was going to have to borrow Cerci’s phone to call his wife to open their business. He thought at this time he would still catch the Cat in the afternoon….how wrong he was. He trailed and jumped the Cat several more times between then and dark. Finally, right at dark, the Cat hit one of the Blacktop roads and went either up or down it as the Hounds could not find it…thus ending round one with this Cat.
That night Mr. Johnny had Dad come by the Café so he could tell the story of the day’s doings. Mr. Johnny said that the Cat had escaped more close calls with his Hounds than Johnny Unitas had when they played the Green Bay Packers.
Dad listened sympathetically, but like all Houndsmen was thinking if He had been there with his Hounds the outcome would have been different.
Well several days later Dad and his pack got their chance…..and this is where the Tom Cat was officially dubbed “Johnny Unitas”…….to be continued!
Well Folks here is the “Tale of Johnny Unitas” it takes place from 1961 to 1965 and is set in rural Washington County, Texas.
Johnny Unitas the Hall of Fame Quarterback was famous for getting away from the attacking horde of defensive linemen just when it appeared he was caught, then throwing a winning touch down; his namesake Bobcat had the same skills!
Ole Johnny lived and hunted in about a 7 square mile area of pasture land, small farms and creek bottoms. There were several small Blackjack Oak woodlots, several Dewberry patches and one large (300 acre) forested area in Johnny’s home range.
These small farms were owned and occupied by older Black families whose children were grown and off in Houston or other cities working. Each of these farms had flocks of barn yard fowl, Chickens, Ducks, Guineas, and Turkeys. Johnny loved the taste of all and was most helpful to these farmers at ensuring that only the fittest survived.
Dad and Mr. Johnny McNeil both had nice packs of Hounds. Dads were straight Bobcat hounds and Mr. Johnny’s would run both a Grey Fox and Bobcat but were broke off everything else. Both Dad and Mr. Johnny would get calls from these farmers when the Cat would decide a Chicken Dinner was needed to break the monotony of Rabbit in its diet.
This started in 1961, both Hunters were used to getting these type calls, loading their Hounds, going to the farms, putting the Hounds down, walking them down behind the buildings toward the creek (it seems all the farms were built on hills overlooking creeks), having the strike Hounds open then start trailing, jump the Culprit, have a nice race then have the Hounds either stretch the Cat or Tree it. The outcome was never in doubt if the notification was prompt….then along came “Johnny Unitas”.
Mr. Johnny McNeil was the first to feel the “Agony of Defeat” at the Paws of this Feline Houdini. He received a call early one morning from Cerci Johnson, one on these wonderful old black farmers, that a BIG Bobcat had just caught a young Turkey off the roost. Mr. Johnny told Cerci that he would load the Hounds and be right there to catch this Poultry Thief. He arrived before the Turkey’s blood had dried, put Ole Rowdy and Mary Jane down and it was not long till they had the Cats track found and were opening. He put down the rest of the Hounds and the Race was on.
Mr. Johnny and Cerci walked down towards the creek and found where the Cat had eaten the Turkey. Mr. Johnny said to Cerci “this won’t take long, a Cat cant last long on a full stomach”. Cerci replied “yawsuh that young Turkey was show nuff fat, Ise was having my eye on him for Thanksgiving dinnaw”. Well fat Turkey or not this Cat had not read the script as to how this was to play out.
The Race went across and down the creek then up into the large track of oaks (in those days Dad and Mr. Johnny followed the hounds on foot everywhere as roads were few and far between). Mr. Johnny followed the Hounds and Cerci went back home to his farm chores. Well, the race was approaching the 30 minute mark and was sounding real good. Mr. Johnny thought that hair pulling was immanent…..then quiet, well the Cat is up Mr. Johnny thought, “Ole Rowdy will locate him in a minute, then I will knock him out and get home to work”.
But such was not to be….after a few minutes the Hounds started trailing headed East. They trailed this direction for over a mile, then crossed a Farm to Market highway, went down to a creek bottom and into a bad Briarpatch. Shortly the Race was back on……and it was…for a while. Then the Cat hit the Creek swimming up it for several hundred yards before coming out and commencing to strike that Trot that all bobcat hunters dread. When the Hounds finally found where the Cat had gone too much time had passed. Now instead of getting home in time for work (Mr. Johnny owned and was chief cook and bottle washer of an Old Texas Beer joint/café), he was going to have to borrow Cerci’s phone to call his wife to open their business. He thought at this time he would still catch the Cat in the afternoon….how wrong he was. He trailed and jumped the Cat several more times between then and dark. Finally, right at dark, the Cat hit one of the Blacktop roads and went either up or down it as the Hounds could not find it…thus ending round one with this Cat.
That night Mr. Johnny had Dad come by the Café so he could tell the story of the day’s doings. Mr. Johnny said that the Cat had escaped more close calls with his Hounds than Johnny Unitas had when they played the Green Bay Packers.
Dad listened sympathetically, but like all Houndsmen was thinking if He had been there with his Hounds the outcome would have been different.
Well several days later Dad and his pack got their chance…..and this is where the Tom Cat was officially dubbed “Johnny Unitas”…….to be continued!
-
Dads dogboy
- Babble Mouth
- Posts: 1352
- Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 2:53 am
- Location: Arkansas
- Location: Central Arkansas
Re: Legendary Bobcats
Mark & Mondo thank you very much for telling about those two Cat!
Boy opening that trunk and having a Cat of that size about run over you...WOW!
Come on Cat Hunters, I know that others of you have had some SPECIAL Cats over the years...take a minute and tell us about them!
Boy opening that trunk and having a Cat of that size about run over you...WOW!
Come on Cat Hunters, I know that others of you have had some SPECIAL Cats over the years...take a minute and tell us about them!
Re: Legendary Bobcats
Well, not sure I'm qualified to add into this thread although I am a professional at bobcats making my dogs (and me) look stupid. 
We do have this cat up by us that just plain haunts us. He's not a real big tom low-mid 30s, but is kind of rangey and can really put on the miles. I'm not sure how many times we've ran this particular cat but he's won them all. The first time we ran him in our training season it was a shorter cold trail but once he jumped he took out of there. He ran big circles and we though for sure we had a timber wolf going. But the dogs looped back after being out of hearing and we caught a glimpse of this rascal. The loops were between 1 and 2 miles with most being closer to 2. Somebody must have forgot to tell this bugger that cats don't have a large lung capacity because he was booking. The dogs weren't making losses either but they just couldn't close the last distance they needed. We finally pulled the dogs about a half hour before dark after starting him at daylight.
The second time we cold trailed him for about 2 miles and then got him going. Had a good run but we just missed seeing him cross a trail at an hour before dark going into one of the worse sections around, so we pulled off him.
He was starting to get to us now and we REALLY wanted to put this critter on a pole. In our last hunt we found a deer kill he had made so we put together a plan. Our snow had went to junk so we knew we were going to have to wait for conditions to get another crack at him. Well we put a camera up on that kill and waited. A week went by and we had a perfect snow and the table was set, the snow quit about 7 and we were checking well before daylight. We hiked in and found he was on the deer during the snow, then we found him crossing a dead end trail, then cut him again on another trail. Checked around and he was still in as best we could tell. The section is a big sucker about 3.5 X 5 miles and we looked at everything we could. We did find a smaller cat but not the one we were after, so we took after him on our last spot. There wasn't a flake in the track on the last two spots. And it was about 3 miles between our first spot to the last. He's got to be laid up not far away after eating. So we put the dog in on the track and a buddy followed behind. There was one 150 stretch all the way at the opposite end 4 miles away, but no way he would have went that far in a night on a full belly. Well I better check it anyway. I went up there and sure enough there is a cat track, but still can't be the same one. So we keep going and going and going on the track and sure enough the dog comes out right on the track I found. My buddy who was following said he never lost the track the whole way and was positive in the was the same one. It was going into another bad section and into the afternoon by that time so we pulled the dogs. Best we could tell was that we were pushing 7 miles cold on that bugger and who knows how far away he still was. Just for kicks we went back to the start and walked each section and sure enough it was the same cat the entire way. I talked to some other guys who hunt the same area and they've had the same deal with this critter.
The only satisfaction I have so far is that I know this cat is going to die. It might be of old age but sooner or later we won't have to deal with him.
We do have this cat up by us that just plain haunts us. He's not a real big tom low-mid 30s, but is kind of rangey and can really put on the miles. I'm not sure how many times we've ran this particular cat but he's won them all. The first time we ran him in our training season it was a shorter cold trail but once he jumped he took out of there. He ran big circles and we though for sure we had a timber wolf going. But the dogs looped back after being out of hearing and we caught a glimpse of this rascal. The loops were between 1 and 2 miles with most being closer to 2. Somebody must have forgot to tell this bugger that cats don't have a large lung capacity because he was booking. The dogs weren't making losses either but they just couldn't close the last distance they needed. We finally pulled the dogs about a half hour before dark after starting him at daylight.
The second time we cold trailed him for about 2 miles and then got him going. Had a good run but we just missed seeing him cross a trail at an hour before dark going into one of the worse sections around, so we pulled off him.
He was starting to get to us now and we REALLY wanted to put this critter on a pole. In our last hunt we found a deer kill he had made so we put together a plan. Our snow had went to junk so we knew we were going to have to wait for conditions to get another crack at him. Well we put a camera up on that kill and waited. A week went by and we had a perfect snow and the table was set, the snow quit about 7 and we were checking well before daylight. We hiked in and found he was on the deer during the snow, then we found him crossing a dead end trail, then cut him again on another trail. Checked around and he was still in as best we could tell. The section is a big sucker about 3.5 X 5 miles and we looked at everything we could. We did find a smaller cat but not the one we were after, so we took after him on our last spot. There wasn't a flake in the track on the last two spots. And it was about 3 miles between our first spot to the last. He's got to be laid up not far away after eating. So we put the dog in on the track and a buddy followed behind. There was one 150 stretch all the way at the opposite end 4 miles away, but no way he would have went that far in a night on a full belly. Well I better check it anyway. I went up there and sure enough there is a cat track, but still can't be the same one. So we keep going and going and going on the track and sure enough the dog comes out right on the track I found. My buddy who was following said he never lost the track the whole way and was positive in the was the same one. It was going into another bad section and into the afternoon by that time so we pulled the dogs. Best we could tell was that we were pushing 7 miles cold on that bugger and who knows how far away he still was. Just for kicks we went back to the start and walked each section and sure enough it was the same cat the entire way. I talked to some other guys who hunt the same area and they've had the same deal with this critter.
The only satisfaction I have so far is that I know this cat is going to die. It might be of old age but sooner or later we won't have to deal with him.
-
mondomuttruner
- Open Mouth
- Posts: 754
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:25 am
- Location: Wisc
Re: Legendary Bobcats
I know the feeling Nolte...lol... thinking, this can't be the same cat 3 miles away..well, after a few wasted hours of cold trailing, sure nuff was..
Re: Legendary Bobcats
Mondo,
I had the same deal happen to me twice this winter... caught the first one. Second one I never did get caught back up to him, cold trailed 5 miles by the dog collar count.
I had the same deal happen to me twice this winter... caught the first one. Second one I never did get caught back up to him, cold trailed 5 miles by the dog collar count.
-
007pennpal
- Open Mouth
- Posts: 652
- Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:01 am
- Location: Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Indiana, Ohio, BC
- Location: North America
Re: Legendary Bobcats
Ole Road Runner... its a female cat that lives behind my place. It seems she won't tree. I ran her for 8 hours once. She always found a way to create a loss. Another time I almost hit her with the truck when I was cutting off the chase on a road with my fastest dog about fifty yards behind her. I thought we got her this winter when my stud Rebel killed a female on the ground in the area of Ole Road Runner. But then I'd find those tracks again where every time she hits a road she runs it for a while. We must have gotten her sister or something. We treed another female in the same area durring chase season and let it live but it didn't run like her. I'll be unhappy if Rebel does catch her on the ground, he's becoming a ground killing expert, cause I'll miss the challenge.
We got another Rock Hole cat that just runs straight for the nearest rock hole cause she gets dogged by everyone and his brother but thats kinda a borring story. I hope we kill her so a treeable cat can have her place.
We got another Rock Hole cat that just runs straight for the nearest rock hole cause she gets dogged by everyone and his brother but thats kinda a borring story. I hope we kill her so a treeable cat can have her place.
