david wrote:mike martell wrote:John
I like a booming mouth, tell the world and give that high dollar hide a good head start, coupled with a dirty tough all weather hound Thanks, Mike
I Guess I am the only one on here that is 8 years away from having owned a dog. It is kind of wierd the stages of grief I have gone through associated with that. I am not even kidding. Also gives me a different perspective because of the fondest of memories I now hold. One of them is this:
I got a dog from Lloyd named Heidi. He had her trained as a hot nosed dog for his style and population of cats. (Lloyd to me is one of the more amazing trainers for getting what he wanted out of a dog that others probably would never have gotten out of the dog). She was a hot nosed strike dog and knew better than to be anything else. But In the North woods near the shores of Lake Superior where bobcats are few and far between: She became a hard grubbing cold tracking bobcat dog. She had a cold nose!
But that was not what I loved about her. It was her voice. She had the most beautiful expressive and musical voice of any dog I can ever remember hunting with. She could truely sing the blues and it turned my soul inside out.
I dont keep dogs till they get old. When they start catching a high percentage, I get bored and afraid for my cats (they are caught on the ground). My thing is seeing pups turn it on and discover their amazing gifts. Heidi is the only dog I ever kept until old age and death. She was not a threat to ground hugging cats.
She became deaf and could not see very well. She was a very slow cold tracker in her old age. I did not hunt her to catch bobcats, I hunted her to soothe my soul. I got so I would never put her with another dog. But some of my fondest memories in all of my hunting days was this: Putting Heidi on an old cold track, laying down on my dog box facing a myriad of stars, (and sometimes the Northern lights) listening to the most beautiful singer in creation. I would fall asleep there. Then I would wake up to that beautiful sound still wafting it's way to my longing ears. She was so slow that even if she got one jumped it was turned into cold trailing again because she would get so far behind.
That my friends is bobcat hunting for the soul. I hope I can find another Heidi for when I get too old to walk. I don't know how she was bred. She was red ticked in color. If any of you know where Lloyd found that voice, please let me know. My ultimate bobcat dog will be wearing that voice.
