Many thanks to all who have posted, it means a lot to me. Jasper was a Dogo/AB cross that was breed by Krystal, he was 8 years old best I can remember. He caught the first pig he ever saw at 4 months and has been catching for me ever since then. He has trained Adora well and he has run behind her as back-up for the last year.
Thought I would share a hunt story that tells the story of the kind of dog he was, one last tribute to the dog that would never quit.
January 3 yrs ago, I was hunting the plains along the rim of Tule Canyon at night. I had 2 solid strike dogs down with a pair of pups and they started a track and got a running boar stopped 100yds from the edge of the Tule. I sent Jasper from 1/4 mile out, praying they could hold the boar untill Jasper could get there. As you might guess he broke as Jasper got close and ran for the edge, and off he went. This was a bad spot they rolled off and I was running to them as fast as I could. I could hear the battle as I reached the rim and my heart sank. I could hear the bay dogs and the grunting and hear Jasper's gruff growl as hes was trying to catch as the whole bunch was sliding,tumbeling, and falling down through the rocks of the Straights of Tule canyon. I jumped off the edge and slid and fell and climbed down the 1000 feet to get to my dogs. I knew there was NO chance of returning the way I came, as I was jumping off shear cliff faces to tree tops to keep climbing down.
It took nearly and 45 min to make the climb down to where Jasper was caught, and I could hear the action echoing off the rock walls of the canyon. I could tell I had some dogs hurt by the sound of things and the rocks I was climbing down had a good blood trail for me to follow. The boar had backed up in a cut behind a bolder that was 20 ft round. I jumped to the edge of the bolder and looked down on my dogs and the boar. Jasper was caught on the ear but he was just being dragged around by the boar his legs folded back under him useless. Cur dogs were spent and cut and not able to help in the catch. As I was trying to figure a way down to help him the boar hooked him again and ripped his teeth out of his ear. Jasper was just laying on the ground unable to get up, as the cur dogs spun the hog one more time as I yelled encouragement from the rock. The Boar spun and charged Jasper and hit him again, while he was still down. I watched as Jasper reached up from the ground and grabbed the only part of the Boar he could reach, his elbow. He closed his eyes and held as the boar thrashed and spun with Jasper dragging around under him but Jasper was not going to let go. The boar stopped for just a second and I fired 4 carefully placed rounds from my pistol and dropped him.
I made my way quickly to the boar and lifted him off of Jasper who was still caught on that elbow. I striped his vest and sat with him for a long time untill he cooled off and got his legs working again. All the dogs were cut but nothing serious. I spent the next 2 1/2 hours climbing out of the Tule on an Aoudad trail caring and lifting Jasper ledge to ledge. Got to the house and Emily met me at the door vet kit ready and she cleaned him up on the kitchen floor as she had many times before. I stitched and stitched untill he was all put back together and then he got to spend a few days in the house sleeping on the couch, that was always his favorite, and mine to.
Thanks Jasper for all the good times.
This is only a good pic if you know the story, Jasper in the rocks at the bottom of Tule canyon.
