Redbone Hounds

It is real hard to see this cat and it is a crappy picture but when you get to the tree and the only camera you have is a cell phone you take what you can get. This cat was treed the first of january 2006 we had just got a fresh snow that morning and the dogs were in the truck from a short run earlier in the day. Jason Davis of Cedar Valley Utah and I went for a quick run up one of the canyons close to here just to check on the snow conditions and found this track at about 5:00 at night. It looked alot fresher than it was and we thought we could have it treed before night fall. As it turns out we got to the tree at about 10:30 that night in the middle of another snow storm. What a blast!! And the story goes like this-I had turned my old reliable treeing walker Jake (ya I had walkers alot of years ago Jake is 8 going on 9)loose first on this cat as it was the first cat of the year for Boone (Boone is only a little over 2)and then we walked Boone out on the track for the first mile or so and I got to the point that I was tired of Boone trying to tear my arm off so we turned him loose. Man he lit it up! Jake my old walker is getting so old now that I really feel for him on these trips. Boone caught him quickly and the 2 of them were off and going. Jake is silent on trail until he either sees what he is chasing or it tree's. Boone on the other hand lets you know exactly where he is at most all times and is very open on track. This cat covered some country I am here to tell you. Poor Jason thought I was out too kill him he had his dog on a leash walking it into the tree as this was her first cat ever. . Jason did not think we would ever get to the tree He turned his dog loose on the track a little ways from the tree and let her follow the track to the tree on her own. When we got to the tree all 3 dogs were treeing and if it had been during the day man this would have been one of those great trees for training purposes. Jake was all over the tree and Boone was there but not really going to town the way he does when he is really into what is in the tree. The little Black and Tan was there and chopping a little bit. The cat was in a dead tree about 10 ft off the ground that had fallen over and was leaning up against another smaller dead tree. There were no real branches in to hide the cat and the silhouette of the cat was pretty clear even at night. If this had been during the day and they could have actually seen that cat it would have really set them off. Jason wanted to throw a snow ball at it and I told him no way we did not have dogs leashed yet and I didn't want to start another race if it jumped. I walked over to Boone to praise him up for doing a good job and reached out and tapped on the tree to get him a little more excited about it. About the time I felt that tree shake and vibrate from me tapping it I knew things were not going to be good. Boone got interested in the tree all right because right then that cat jumped and he almost had it in the air. Those dogs were gone!!!!!!! They all treed it again a ways down the hill and this time it was so far up the tree that getting a picture with a cell phone was out of the question. We got the dogs leashed up and headed back for the truck. I did not realize how far we had really gone and for a while was wondering if we had actually gotten turned around and gone the wrong way or something as I kept expecting to see the truck just around the next corner for about 15 or 20 different corners. Our wives were glad to see us and let us know that if we did that again we were dead. They were ready to send out search and rescue as it was about 3:00 in the morning before we got home and we were only going out to check the snow conditions!