Loaded up the dogs and couple good friend, Kenny Upton and Jon Yokley. Went out cougar hunting yesterday and cut a cougar track at 10:30 in the morning, (just getting ready to call it a day, should have been at work) We had cut the track of the cougar just outside a old mine shaft. One set of tracks in and one set out, looks like he found a place out of the weather. After looking at the track I knew I had to see what was at the end of it. Dumped 2 dogs on the track and they smoked out of there like it was only a couple hrs old so I dumped the rest of the dogs we had with us which was 4 more. I have a 10 yr old white cloud walker male I usually just use as a rig dog for bears, and I will dump him if I think it is going to be a short race. But lion hunting I can not hunt him very often it is just to hard on him at his age. I can not leave that dog at home in the morning when I leave with the others or he will wake the wife and you know what happens if mama dont get her sleep

So when I take him i must leave him in the dog box on the pickup if I am out on the 4-wheeler especially in the winter cause he doesnt do real good in the snow its just to hard on him and we hunt some real steep and rough country. (He is fine with that and never makes a peep while in the box). Needless to say when I got to the tree I had 1 extra dog there, it was (topper) and he was treeing like a champ, not a tracking collar on him, and as the crow flies it was about 2-3 miles from the pickup, I thought to myself how the world did you get out of the truck. (When we got back to the pickup the tailgate and the dog box was still closed and locked the only thing I can think is he forced his way through the head holes 6x8 opening below the rigging deck). After letting the dogs tree for about an hour, we decided this was the cougar for Jon to take. Here are a few pictures of the cougar, hope you enjoy them. As you can see in the last photo he had split his toe and the way it healed up gave him a 5th. The dog you can see in the 3rd phot decided to get a little to close to the cougar and it swatted her out of the tree, right in the side of the head and she fell about 15 out of the tree and sliced her ear open but nothing serious, she will heal up just fine. I dont know if this dogs very bright beacause she hit the ground and the first place she headed was back up tree or maybee she just wanted some revenge.



[img]http://i48.tinypic.com/348q4va.jpg[/[img]

Thanks
Junk