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I have seen cougars make ugly faces, snarl, hiss. growl, piss and low screams but never like that!! I think it knew we were on the only trial out and it dawned on me shortly after I hit the tree!!

that story varminator told us about him leaving me upside down in a tree reminded me of the time I saved him from a wampus cat.,,,we had been out looking for a cat for hours and he decided totakeus in some rough country kinda a last resort thing because in those days, we never came home till we treed and we were real tired. good ole art bell was on the radio talking about monsters and aliens. I had a young dog with us that liked to get on top of the hood and would cause a hell of a noise when it came down from her weight.brad was getting tired of my dog doing this because he would ram his fist up into the roof every time she did it. any way, I got tired of him cussing me so I told him to stop so I could cut a good switch and break her from it. I found a dandy of a switch long enough to reach all the way over the hood. it was about as big as my thumb on the big end and nice and limber like a buggy whip. it was a big full moon that night and it casted a shadow on the brush so I could see her inching up, first one foot then another. art was putting on a good show that night and brad and me were pretty focused on the crazy stuff he was talking about and we had stopped talking to each other some time ago. I looked out his window and seen her lift one of her back legs up on the hood and lean forward with her nose about even with my partners open window....I was just about to whack her on the nose when I noticed anhideous looking creature come crashing thru the brush and it was clear that that wampus cat intent on tearing brads face up with his knarly claws. if you ever seen wampuscat up close you would know what I mean. any way the only thing I could think of to save him was to whack that cat with the switch! my timming was a little slow and the cat did manage to leave a hell of a welt on varminators check with only a small amount of blood trickling down. god only knows what the scars would have looked like if I hadn't had that switch in my hand that night. he talks about me showing no gratitude for him helping me out of that tree yet still to this day he don't believe that I saw and saved him from that wampus cat...at least I am content in knowing I saved him that night.

All you young hunters re read Old dogs post and then read it again! This is the best example ive ever seen of reasons NOT to drop acid before you load the dogs!

mark I hope you don't mean my bad spelling! give me a break man. that's a chitload of typing with two fingers!

We were all still in high school when this happened. A buddy and I cast a couple hounds in the fox woods one night and a little while later a couple more of or hunting buddies showed up. We told them we turned out bout 30 min ago and hadn't heard a bark. They each had their own truck and said they'd go to the metal gate and turn a couple out. Well when they pulled off I just stepped up on marks bumper without him knowing it, eased up on the dog box and on to his tool box, I was sitting on his tool box with my legs hanging over the side of the truck on the drivers side right behind him. His window was down with his arm resting on the window sill, by this time we are 1/2 a quarter from my truck. I Reach down and grab his arm and scream! He screams, jerks the steering wheel to the right throwing me off into the middle of the sand road, he is now in the passenger seat, the truck goes into the brush on the right side of the road and stops. I'm rolling around in road laughing my @@s off and he jumps out cussing me and carrying on. Can you beleive that I not only scared him half to death, I almost had to see if I could whip his @@s too!

Mark , Old Dog wasn't on nothing but warm Pepsi !! If he ever wants to ride with you , make him ride in the Back! He lost he front seat rights, when he cut that long ass switch!!! Wumpus cat my arse!!

gratitude???not...worst thing was that I missed the danm dog and she did it again..lol...one of the things I love about this site is it helps to re live fond memories . scrub,,i bet mark had art bell on the radio???

More years ago than I care to remember, young friend & I had driven over and hunted 12 mile, sure we had covered at least 150 mile without a bark. As we neared my place a neighbor was pulling put of my driveway. He explained seeing a cougar about & hour ago behind his house & he had been missing some chickens lately. We drove the 1/4 mile to where he saw the cougar & sure enough,after a short investigation,Sister then Rowdy said a cat has been here. Dumped a couple young dogs ( out of those two to help), the pack trailed back to within 100 ft. of my house, turned east trailing up on a steep brushy ridge for about 1/4 mile, before a very hot jump that lasted about 10 minutes, short pause and solid tree job. I mentioned that sounded more like a bobcat race than a cougar. No way declared my neighbor.
Neighbor could not wait to get a look at the cougar that had been killing his chickens, problem was we arrived to find a bobcat that might have weighted 20 lbs.. some days it pays to hunt close to home. Al

James Cristy and I were up Eckley walking and looking for tracks on a Blue Clay road. locals call the place the Red Corrals. (In the winter few will try to drive in Blue Clay)
As we were tracking around we heard what sounded like a Angus Bull growling looking for a cow in heat. It was so loud a roar a Bear even came to mind? We walked over to see what it was and there were 2 Big Tom Bobcats all bowed up till one spotted us and then the other. We ran back to the rig and got the dogs. Had a split race one group of dogs made a lose close to where the others were jumped and screaming and they flew to them. We did catch that one, and it was 20# plus.
I heard cats before and in a culvert, hollow log or a box they can be loud! But you should have heard these 2 cats, someone had crossed the line and wasn't leaving !!!!!

About 42 years ago a couple high school buddies and i were hunting after school on Weyerhaeuser land east of Sutherland .I was hunting ole Rock and Jack .Not long after dark they treed a big tom bobcat,right on the side of the road.I shot the cat out standing in the road but made a bad shot and the cat ran down the mountain and bayed up under a log.When we got there,there was one hell of a fight going on .I crawled under the log and could see the dogs and cat ........and something else! A dam porcupine!!! Ole Jack was laying on top of that thing and fighting that cat! I manaveured around so i could safely shoot the cat and got the dogs out . Jack had quills from his stomach to his chin .We rushed him to a vet in Roseburg (got the vet outta bed) and he knocked Jack out and pulled most of the quills out .Some had worked in.I had some minor problems with him for a month or so and would occasionally find a quill to pull but he made a full recovery.

Russel McCall and I worked 10 yrs together A.D.C.(U.S.Gov.) and we kept dogs we used on Coyotes. In the Sheep country, many ranchers were trying to build woven wire fences which helped to find the digging or high spots where the Coyote came in, or in and out.
Most the time the Coyote comes thru the fence-less, or the bad fence side.

Many times we ran unsuccessful when they lined out and got off into the back country( No Tracking systems). Had a much higher percent the second time because, it was going to cross the same place as before if you didn't screw up ( lot of ways to screw it up) that certain crossing on the first go around.

So here is a short story, like this hunt !
I dropped of Russel at a crossing, took the dogs and drove to the back side of the Sheep pasture (prairie) where I started walking the dogs towards a sheep carcass. The dogs hadn't Barked when I heard Russel shoot 1 time? I didn't call the dogs because they looked like they were about to open and did start opening on down the hill and heading toward Russel. I got back to the rig and headed that way. The Dogs beat me there, but Russel had shot the Coyote, when I heard that shot ...

Another time Russel and I were running a Coyote, the rancher and I were waiting at a crossing out of site and around a corner from each other. I heard the dogs coming down the ridge toward us. "BOOM" I hear Spud (the rancher) shoot !! I started towards him when, I seen a Coyote running, "BOOM" I shot and got her. I thought 2 Coyotes! till I walked around the corner, and seen Spud crying over Russel's dog he just shot. I think Spud spooked the Coyote over to my side some how , and he was so excited he shot the dog when it jumped out of some brush??
I thought and Spud thought, Russel was going to Kill 'em. He did give Russel some money for the dog. ...
That wasn't to Cool of a story ,but I was talking about "Crossing"...

Russel McCall & Willis Sutton invited me on an early morning coon hunt years ago. We were hunting a ranch down river from the Warner ranch, where coons were about to put the folks out of chicken business. I had two younger dogs that had just started catching cat for me, one female could really run a cat & her litter mate male was a strike dog especially from the box. But had ran a deer a few days before, since we were free casting I was reluctant to take him along, but Russel insisted I cast him.
Willis was hunting a dog called JC that he had recently traded a Toyota pickup & money for half ownership in.I can/t recall the name of Russel/s dog, but it was one of his better ones.
I believe Jc treed the first coon, then Russel/s dog treed a coon, Split, the male that had ran the deer a few days earlier then treed one. Things were going good, so Russel decided to climb and jump this out . Somehow that coon threw those dogs a lose in a area that dogs should never lose a coon in & disappeared in thin air. We stood looking as confused as those hounds.
As we walked back to the rigs, scratching our heads, Russel was cheering we up, telling me my dog had treed that coon and I would not have to worry about him running deer again. I told him that dog will have to do more than tree a coon for me to trust him. Willis got a kick out of that. Then split struck, very shortly he ran a deer right past Russel, Willis nor I saw the deer, but I arrived just in time to catch him and lift him slightly off the ground and wear out several keen switches
. I did not own a shocking collar in those days. Russel declared I had broke him, believe it or not, I kept that Split dog about two more years and to my knowledge he never trashed on me again. I sold him to Wendell Smith & to my knowledge Wendell enjoyed him until he died of old age and don/t believe he ever had any trash problems from Split.
Just a few years ago I told John Warner that story, he got a smile on his face, ask me just where we lost that coon at, then told me his and a school friend/s dogs had lost a coon in that area numerous, about the time we had taken our early morning coon hunt. Thanks for the memories Russel & Willis. Al

Hi Al, Willis brought JC (a pup out of the dog "Buck Wheat" he gave so much for) out to me when he was 8 months old to "start" for him, JC was the most natural dog that I have"EVER" seen period!! I hunted him with Rene Sears and Rene begged me to talk Willis into letting him train JC for the same money, as he was not working at the time. Willis agreed and Rene hunted him. I hunted with Rene alot and seen that dog make fools out of our dogs in just a few hunts,
I feel that Willis ruined him, when he started taking him to treeing contest. He went to false treeing on ever cat that he made a lose on after that.

Brad, according to Tom H., he bought JC as a pup from Willis. He and Zip put JC on numerous bobcats with Zip/s dogs, but he never made a tree. JC was gun shy and Tom got disgusted and returned him to Willis. Recall Willis telling me he shot a gun each day before feeding Jc and got he over being gun shy. Tom told me he named him JC because he always thought J. Christ what am I going to do with this dog. Zip also told me about their struggles with JC. Tom said JC was older than most thought when you & Rene started working with him. It was hard for me to to wrap my mind that a dog as game crazy as JC , could have ever been as spooky as they described him. I remember Rene telling me what a natural JC also. Just what Tom told me and Zip confirmed. Guess, a perfect example of a dog having to reach a certain age for the light to come on. Thanks AL