Thanks for the kind words. Now here's the story as I remember it.
Yeah it was another fine morning in the mountains of Southwest Montana. I met up with John the houndsman at 4 am in great tracking conditions, due to 6 inches of powder from the day before. Since we were the first on the scene that morning we elected to check out a few canyons we could drive through before returning to one of our favorite spots where we started hiking at 5:30. With flashlight in hand and longbow on back I took the lead with Johns two veteran dogs, Spike and Baxter. John was bringing up the rear with three new pups who had never been on a track or off the leash. At about 6:30 I came across a fresh lion track. The dogs didn’t react as quickly as the usually do but as I stood there examining the prints both dogs went wild. With in minutes John and the three pups had caught up and the mountains were echoing with hound music.
We got the dogs tied up so we could study the track. It was a good size track coming down out of some steep cliffs, crossing our path and heading south. As it started to get light, John let Spike and Baxter loose. The hounds generally don’t bark much on the trail, they wait until they have the cat treed or at bay before they let loose. So after letting the big dogs go we set out with the pups on lead to follow the tracks. After about twenty minutes heading south we heard the dogs choppy tree barks coming from high in the cliff to the north. After analyzing the situation we agreed that the cat must have been at bay atop the cliffs to our north so we abandoned the tracks and headed towards the music. Nearing the base of the cliffs we cut the lion track again with dogs in pursuit. At this point I had my doubts about being able to get to the action at the top of the cliffs. John assured me that the cat can’t go anywhere the dogs couldn’t follow. So the question was, “Can I go anywhere a dog can go?” . . . We’ll see! At that point we let the three pups of leash to join the chase. They took to the trail like ducks to water and ten minutes later we heard the young voices added to the choir.
Soon I found myself about halfway up and around the cliffs, on all fours, gasping for air, with legs trembling. I had to stop and take a brake with John already fifty yards ahead of me. That was the last I saw of him until I caught up to the action. Arriving on the scene I saw John and all five dogs at the base of a fir tree. Among the chorus of hound music I heard John say, “Lenny, he’s bigger than we thought! He’s a big tom with a pumpkin head!”.
Gotta run to the taxidermist but I'll give ya the rest of the story tonight.
-Lenny the Lurker
Topic: Lurkin Lenny got his Lion (Read 5720 times)
