I'll bet any one of you guys photo albums would put mine to shame, nonetheless, I'll take the compliments. Unfortunately I couldn't post any of my sheep photos, the county prosecuter is still holding them as state's evidence ;-)
Yea Kattraxx, I used to trap bobcats back in the glory days.....back when 1 bobcat pelt was worth the equivilent of a month's wages for me. I don't know what it was like around where you were, but the problem around here was that everybody else was trapping them back then too. There wasn't a year go by I didn't loose a half a dozen or more traps to trap thieves and it's tough to say how many cats were stolen out of my traps. All in all, I think I like conditions today better.
And Border, my catch of bobcat is pitiful compared to the way you New England boys pile them up. Trust me, I know how much work it takes to have the kind of success you guys have. You boys are my heroes.
Waycool, my Molly dog was the high tan in the photos and was my first real hound that could catch game. She was a Black and Tan/walker cross and was about as ill bred as a hound could be. She was unatheletic, had bad feet, was ugly to look at, but she had the biggest heart of any dog I've ever owned. She was the kind of dog that would never give up on a track and the only way I was ever able to get her back was to catch up to her and snap on a leash. In a of way, she was a pain in the ass to hunt with.
I bought her as a 2 year old started dog back in 1983 when I was first starting out and together we learned the craft of hound dogging the hard way. I'll bet there isn't a way of screwing up a game track that we didn't go through. But somehow we perservered and she developed into a half competent hound.
I lost Molly on a lion hunt back in May of '91 when she got on a travelling tom and I was unable to keep up with her on foot. I didn't have tracking collars back then and never found her again. It's ironic, but it was her determination on a track that made her great, but in the end it probably cost her her life. I learned my lesson though, anymore I won't even enter a dog in a bench show without a tracking collar on!
Thanks guys.