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One day we found where a small cat had made little toe prints in the fuzzy frost on top of the crust. The dogs were breaking through and we thought this would not end up good for us. At first I could not find a cat in the tree as it was a big bushy cluster of cedars. I did not have the dogs tied up and this lynx came out right past my head. I watched it float over the top of the snow and the dogs went floundering off after it. It took a while of circles, but about ten minutes later they were treed. You can see the amazment in these guys eyes as we stared up at a nice female lynx. The kids marveled at how those two smelly old hounds were able to show them their first lynx. As the fire in the Yaak cabin's woodstove crackled, those boys jabbered on half the night about the legendary status we had achieved that day. Lol. We had many epic days with these dogs and I will share more later.
Thanks, Sadie and Roy.

Great pics and stories.

Phil, It sucks how those hounds had to go. But please don't 'throw in the towel' that will mean the P.O.S. wolves won.

This is Ryker's first lion. It was halfway through thr season and I loaned them Ol' Roy to run with Diamond who was getting up there in years. Just a week or so after this Ryker found a free dog named Sadie and he was hooked.

Ryker with a lion and Sadie.

Here is a 33.5 pounder We caught a few years back. This was one of those races that left us scratching our heads. There was a bait and trap in this draw at the upper end of a culvert. There were bobcat tracks everywhere. We thought we had the front end figured out when we let Roy and Penny go. Roy peeled off the track we put him on. I thought he was running it back wards. He messed up the track he was running, but I know the cat had walked to the bait on this trail. He must have went back out the same way after the snow had froze harder. Just before they topped the ridge they cranked a 180 and started boiling back towards us. About 600 yards ubove us they locked down. It was in averiticle blowdown chocked crack that was slicker than whale snot on ice. It took me about 45 minutes to get there. When I finally did arrive Mike was smiling big and pointing up. It must have took me 10 minutes to clear my eyes from sweat catch my breath. Mike said I could shoot this one, his words were " you earned it". I'm pretty fat you know. Ha! I will remember this one until alheimers kick in.

Roy loved to field trial and was pretty good at it even though I never took him till he was about 5yrs. old. He won high point dog in Montana and Alberta one year. He loved running drags and was a pretty good bear dog. Here is Mike with him and Penny plus a bonus picture of Wedgie fixin' to launch.

Ryker with a real nice tomcat that Sadie caught solo and another one Roy put up.

I know these are not all bobcat pictures, but this was the last lion Roy treed. It was with D. Hostetler and Tyler. The young guy holding the lion up is my friend's son Nick, home from college for holiday break. I told him I would try to take him huntimg to see his first lion and the chance had almost slipped away. The day before he headed back to Kansas for school I asked himto go with us. He lives up the river so I picked him up on the way out. We treed a female right away and found this tom that we had been after for a while for Gerry. Some other guys had treed it that morning and were nice enough to invite us to run it. After we killed the cat, Nick led Roy off the mountain. He listened as I recounted hunts past and I shared with him how much I loved Ol' Roy. I will cherish the memory of that day. Not because it was a great feat of hunting, but because we connected as hunters, both experienced and a guy seeing his first lion in a tree. To me it has become more about friendships and memories than "my" dogs and "your" dogs. This day they were "our" dogs and we all had a great time.

Looks to me like this group of hounds knew how to get the job done! How is the boy handling his loss?

Some very nice cats ya got there. Sorry to hear bout them sumbitchin wolves though.

This cat was orginally going to market, but after our wolf ordeal, I insisted that he let me mount it. It was Sadie's last bobcat and it was a toad. I can't wait to hang it on Ryker's wall.

I can't express the sadness that I feel for your loss! Thank you for sharing the pics and stories and hope you can and will continue to hunt with hounds. You have some great memories!

Take care and good luck in the future.

Phil, Very sorry for your loss!
Just curious, the article in the Intrerlake said Roy was a Beagle, is that right?
Great pictures! lots of good memories.

all of is wolf country fear this....sorry for your loss

Great pictures and storys Phil. I hate hearing of your familys loss. I fear this state will soon have like problems as our wolf numbers grow. RS