Message #561215

[Reuben]

another cull...

Killer was his name and he was an East Texas Cur dog...he was a slender 60 pound dog and he had a july walker type head on him...he was a brown brindle color and silent on track...Mike had aquired killer because he was a bay buster and was culled for that reason...

I hunted with this dog several times with my friend named Mike...the dog didn't fit his style and Mike said he would sell Killer to me...Mike was real fond of my main hog dog named Yeller and thought Killer would be a big help to him...I told Mike I would think about it...

After a hunt Mike asked me to tie yeller to a tree and then he tied Killer about 10 feet away from Yeller and he said he wanted to make Yeller and Killer friends with each other...I watched Mike as he sat crossways on his 4 wheeler and the whole while he was smiling and grinning and looking at the two dogs...after 5 minutes or so he was finished...to this day I can't figure out how Mike did it...these dogs loved hunting together...

it doesn't take long and Killer and Yeller are making a good team...they loved each others company and they could shutdown a pig...one day my Uncle was coming down and I offered to take him on a hunt...My Uncle Pete was a big time hunter but had never hunted hogs behind dogs so I offered to take him...He was in his mid seventies so I knew he might not stick a pig but at least he could go for the ride...but as luck would have it Yeller and killer run one an catch him right in the middle of a dirt road and I drive up to the caught hog and my uncle gets to stick his only hog and I was real happy for him...he always bought me bullets when I was a kid and we hunted together many times back when I was a youngster...so this was really special to me...

we move on to another place and turn Killer and Yeller out in a meadow next to the woods...the two get to trailing and they are loping along real cool as we followed in the truck...the dogs looked happy and content loping side by side following the track...I was thinking about how could Mike make those dogs to be good friends with each other...I still wonder about that...

the dogs cut into the woods and cross a slew and we kill the truck engine and listen...about 10 minutes go by and they go to baying solid...I get there and they have a 250 pound sow sitting in a small rose hedge looking for any kind of protection...

The day I lost Killer...

My brother and I hunted quite a bit together back in those days...there was a 100 acre place we could hunt next to a hiway...there was another 100 acres next door that someone from out of town owned and was totally unimproved...there weren't any hogs in that area except once in a while...one day we saw this giant hog track so we tried to get the dogs on it but it proved too cold...we went out and scouted the area and found where the hog spent some of his time next to the road and so we make a plan to get this big boar...

We cast out Yeller and killer and in 5 minutes they bayed and we sent some rough dogs to them and the hog breaks bay 3 times and they go out of hearing...all the dogs eventually come back except for Killer and Yeller...If I had a tracking system back then we might of caught that big boar hog...

I put up reward posters and one man calls all PO'ed because he thought we were trespassing on his land because he saw my dogs laying out behind his barn...even though I had to listen to all that I got my hopes up...I called him later to see if he had seen the dogs again but luckily his wife answered and apologized for her husbands behavior and the lady said she would call me if she saw the dogs...I drove about 50 mile round trips every day after work looking for the dogs...I would switch out sweaty shirts about every three days...about a week goes by and I see where my shirt was moved and it looked like a dog had slept on it...that gave me more hope...another week goes by and I am out there calling for the dogs and yeller shows up and loads up...he was cut up quite a bit and was healing rather well...I realized right there and then Killer didn't make it and if he did someone picked him up because he was people friendly...to this day it still bothers me not knowing what really happened to Killer... that same month I ordered my first tracking system...

bay busting dogs make hog hunting a challenge especially in the thick stuff...but I wouldn't have it any other way...

the man that was PO'ed got mad when I told him where we started the hog...he said, that is five miles from my land...you must of been trespassing on my land...I still hear that now and then from other folks...but now I have two collars on each dog...a quick track and an alpha 100...