A few nights ago, I got a call from my buddy Scott Black wanting to know if I wanted to chase a lion. “I guess so” was my response, for I was not sure he wasn’t joking. “Meet me at the front gate and we will go from there” responded Scott.
I loaded Jimmy and Lizzie, my two five year old bluetick hounds and was on the ranch in twenty minutes. It seems that a deer hunter had seen the lion about three hours earlier that evening. Trailing conditions were excellent, no wind and a little dew had already fallen. If there was indeed a lion, there was no doubt that my dogs would be able to get him jumped.
I followed Scott and the hunter who had seen the big kitty to the deer blind where the sighting had occurred. We led the two excited dogs into the mesquite where the cat had been seen. I unsnapped Jimmy, he trotted about 50 steps away and struck with two huge bawls that only a bluetick male can produce. I turned Lizzie loose and the two dogs commenced to steadily trail north. Just before reaching the north boundary of the ranch, the dogs turned and trailed west to a creek.
Once they reached the creek, they jumped the cat and the race was on. After covering a little over a mile, the dogs made a loose. After a few minutes of silence, I heard Lizzie barking at something on the ground. Jimmy went to her and I could hear both dogs fighting a coon. I got to them and put a .22 bullet in the huge boar, ending the battle.
Jimmy left the coon battle and went back to where he had lost the kitty’s trail. He picked up the track and left running west, to an 8 foot fence where the cat had crossed. The next day I retraced the trail that the dogs had traveled and feel that they had the lion in a tree and simply overran it, making the loose. When I went to the coon, the lion jumped from the tree and continued fleeing the scene.
See you outdoors!
Adios,
Gary
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