Lions always grab the stragglers. LOL!

[sow flat slim]

Happy Birthday Mike, nice story, got to give them joggers incentive

[Big N' Blue]

Happy Birthday!!! Old Man!! LOL

[Buddyw]

Happy Birthday Mike,


Mike requested me to post this picuture you wanted posted to show your age.. .

[hunt14]

Happy Birthday Mike! I hope you have many more to come.

[spruce mountain]

Happy Birthday Mike.

[i hunt bluedogs]

Great story Mike keep them comin'

[Shorty]

Mike,
I don't know what to thimk of this. You either saved her life due to the fact that she'll be the pack leader from now on, or you killed her from a heart attack for the same reason. Great story as always!!!

[festus]

Happy birthday Mike. You should have timed her run, Probably missed out on a world record performance.

[MAC]

Happy B-Day Mike.
Reminds me of stunt i pulled on the Navajo Rez bear hunting in October.We killed a boar near washington pass and put the skin in back of the truck between the dog box and tailgate. On the way to check the bear in we picked up a Navajo man hitch hiking.I knew he would freak out so i told him to jump in back. He did and we started driving of maybe 5 mph. When he looked down and did a double he bailed out head first. I stopped to see if he was ok. he jumped up motioning with his hands and was yelling GO GO. [in Navajo tradition when your grandparents die they become bears.]I laughed all way to fish and game office. when i got there i was in tears. Oh yeah i have a little Irish in me too.

[Mike Leonard]

Mac,.

I do know for sure they want nothing to do with a dead bear or messing with a bear they don't know.

Many years ago back when I bearhunting pretty hard I was asked to come over on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation and help line out a couiple of young hunters there with some dogs so they could catch the problem bears. Well these young guys had bought a couple of dogs off an Outfitter up out of Durango Colorado that I knew never caught much of anything with his hounds. I beleive these were 3/4 bluetick and a quarter Australian Shepherd. Not a bad mix if you hit the rightr cross for bear dogs, but these dogs did know come here from sic um>

Anyway we get over there and let me tell you the place is just infested with bears. They had some old beef cows that got out on a frozen lake during the wenter and the ice broke and they fell thru and drowned. So when the ice melted and this was spring they went out in a bought and when cow popped up they would tie on drag it to shore pick it up with a back hoe load it and take to a spot and stake it down for bear bait. Well this worked like a charm and as soon as those cows got good and ripe you couldn't hardly stir the bears with a stick they were so thick. Getting a run was no problem at all but just like coons in a ripe sweetcorn patch sometimes you had too many fresh tracks. Well my dogs had been spring hunted pretty hard and they were thin and tuff, and I had several red Matthes redbone cross dogs that would just really bite a bear and a couple of Cascade Plotts that were like hornets on a bear.

Here is the funny part : First drop we made the dogs had a bear smoking out of there in just a minute we heard a battle and then the locked up on the tree. Well these indian boys dogs were following along with them and so we headed to the tree. I had a couple of my friends along that also ran bear dogs. Well we get to the tree and it's a big red bear, and he isn't up but about 10 ft. on the first bigger limb of this Ponderosa Pine. Well my dogs were just laying on the tree and the foam was flying. We got up there and these two little blue colored dogs came running up there and made a little circle and must have got a whiff of that bear or looked up and saw it moving there on that branch. They just stampeded out of there and the one in the back was howling like a bunch of bees was stingiong him. They ran plumb off that hill and out of sight and we never did see them again. Well I got to looking around at the tree and no indian boys. What the heck? I asked my friends where did those two guys go? They just shook their heads and said maybe after their dogs. Well we didn't know if they wanted to kill this bear or what so I kind of made a circle around there to see if I could find them. I walked off about a hundred yards and was looking around when I spotted them standing side by side out in the oak brush with their backs turned towards the tree and they were whispering. I got over there and said what's up? They just sort of gave me a bashful look and said. Not much. I said do you want to kill this bear? No they said what are you doing standing way out here? Not much they said . Same answer. Well I found out they just didn't have it in them to go up there and look right up at that bear because as you said it might bring bad luck or somthing. Well I knew they were never going to catch any bears and the dogs they had were not going to make the grade either. Been so long ago now but I think we hunted a few days and had some fun and treed a few more bears but never did get them up to a tree. Later on I heard that one of them got some better lion dogs and did pretty good on the lions in the snow. They don't seem to have any feelings about lions other than some of them want you to give them some lion fat for ceremonies becasue they said it makes you strong.

I don't really fault them for their beliefs, just look at some of the stuff even what some may call popular religions practices.

Oh well I don't hunt bears anymore myself so I won't be distrubing any ancestors. LOL!

[yotahounder]

LOL that sounds like a good motivation talk if u ask me lol bet she will keep up with her group u gotta wonder about some people darn city slickers these days

[MAC]

Fantastic story mike. Makes it even funnier being from the area. I live in Gallup and I swear if we bring a bear skin home and pull into a gas station the parking lot will clear and sales will be down for a month. Come in with a lion skin and the cerimonial will start. sales will go up for two months with people coming to see the lion. We were hunting on the rez one day and treed two cub bears by themselves,next to a road.[no mama] We took some pictures and left the pups treeing for awhile. Two fisherman pulled up and said what are you guys doing. we told them about the cubs and pointed up into the tree. I swear they left so fast the trailer with the boat was peeling out. TO FUNNY.