Cat week begins!

[twodot]

10 below and fresh snow today. Gonna get into the 20s. Me and old Ben are heading out to try an cut a fresh cat track as the sun comes up. If we find some, we will come back and get Sarah, Nash and the dogs, then off to the race. Sounds good in theory anyway. Got two young dogs that we are trying to get started in the bobcat/lion business this winter. Looks like this week is the time to get em started. They are good on coons and squirrels, just gotta get some cat tracks under them to make the transition I hope.
The last deer we shot in this drainage had a cat bite in his neck when we skinned him, and two days ago the boys shot a coyote up there that had the same bite mark in the small of his back. It was bedded in a pool of blood when they found it. Appearantly everything a cat gets it's mouth on is not instant toast! Check out the picture of the deer hide that got worked over.

 

[Gerald Martin]

G-luck and keep us posted with the pictures!

 

[Randy11]

Good luck!

Just curious how far do you have to go from home to get into lions?

 

[twodot]

Wow, I ache all over. Walkin in shin deep snow all day aint as fun as it was in my 30s.
Found a fairly fresh track this am shortly after daylite. It was only about 2 miles from the house. Came and got Sarah and Nash and the dogs. Dogs were really liking the track. We took off after the cat, (bobcat that is) Followed that sucker in and out of every coolie and across every ledge in the county I think. Since these pups have never had a hold of a cat we were keeping them on leash as we went. (pain in the ass but probably best for now) Anyway after about 3 hours of this, the cat started to line out across some open sage ground. I was thinking that maybe we had jumped him out of some cover we had come thru and he was heading for a large stand of cottonwoods. He wound up hitting the river and started downstream on the ice for a long way. Dogs did well, they had to walk across hundreds of fresh coyote tracks but stuck with their cat trail. I finally called it a day after getting out on some bad ice and falling thru in a couple of spots. As it was, we were getting to close to the CMR rather rapidly. It is off limits to cat hunting. Be at it again tomorrow. Like to find a lion track.
Randy we are liable to see a lion track anywhere we go. The day before deer gun season opened, I saw a lion about 800 to 1000 yards from the house. Mostly we see their tracks in a drainage about 2 miles north of us.