Little Red Pup

We were staying away from home for 5 days, we had a lion hunter here from New York. A very nice man that owns 6 Wendy’s…I thought that was pretty cool. We stayed at a friend Sandy’s house, A nice little cabin in a small town of 259 people. His cabin has an old wooden tack room where we would saddle up each morning and cool off our horses after each ride. Hung in his families rickety floor tack room are some old saddles, new saddles, headstalls, and a few Garcia bits I could picture my horse carrying proudly…but that’s another story. Sandy’s place is surrounded by some aged wood corrals and a few new metal ones too. In these corrals stands some of the most courageous bucking horses in the state of Wyoming. I pointed out a big grey horse, Kody tells me, “Yep, I rode that one.”
Back in Kody’s day he was a saddle bronc rider, and he still does ride Broncs for a living in the spring. Its just a different type of Bronc, he does it to put food on the table, and to pay for my much needed Blackberry phone…I guess I’m a modern day mountain woman. He break horses for people that don’t have the knowledge or sometimes they just don’t have the time. I was a little out of my comfort zone staying somewhere new, a place that wasn’t my home. But as I looked around I knew this place would be just fine for 5 days.
Of course the first morning was windy, that is just a normal Wyoming day. Wind is a houndsman worst enemy. Wind is also a houndsman wife’s worst enemy. It seems its always a little more windier and colder on top of a horse. When were hunting we look for tracks, with our dogs trotting along with us looking or “sniffing” around rock ledges, just about anywhere a lion would go. About twenty minutes into our ride we see a few magpies flying low to the ground. Magpies are something I always look for, they usually fly over carcasses meaning something had died recently. In this instance a Bobcat had hunted a mule deer and was successful. The dogs went crazy jumping the bobcat out of a rock pile and treeing the bobcat in about 10 minutes.
Bobcats are one of the hardest animals to hunt with dogs, they are tricky. The dogs put the pressure on this cat and sent him up a big thick cedar tree. Waylon is my dog, she is a young red bone. After having her 9 months we have grown close and I enjoy watching her hunt in her early knowledge. She is doing so great, I cant wait to see what she will be in the upcoming seasons.
We were sitting in the middle of this hunt on our horses. I really thought that was neat. This was also the first time I had seen Waylon open on a bobcat track, to tell you the female truth to it, I was so proud of that little red pup it brought tears to my eyes…now to remind you in the past she had made me so mad it has brought tears to my eyes. Now on this day they were good proud tears. I sat on my horse gratified knowing that little red timid dog was mine. Now in the ten minutes that this chase lasted there was no timid about her, that was until the gun shot went off. Swoosh…Waylon ran off. I guess that’s something that will just take the time, but it is great to know she has the will in her to hunt.
Mine and Kody’s dogs did awesome and so did Sandy’s. The hunter was impressed, and of course I was tearful happy. But I kept that all to myself trotting behind the guys. This is just another story of a proud Wyoming Wife. I was proud of my husbands diligent work with the dogs, proud of my horse and proud of these awesome dogs we call ours.