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Hunting Mountain Lion with Dogs

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Steven Rinella talks about the complex relationship between lion hunters and their dogs.

One Response to “Hunting Mountain Lion with Dogs”

  1. woodswoman

    It’s been a while since my last responsive commentary to your misadventures.
    I was wondering if the Sportsman Channel took you behind the wood shed and shot you. I guess not. My friend has kindly pointed out I should focus on the awesome instead of the crazy. Here I am focusing on the awesome. Thank God you don’t know who I am. We can both live in ignorant bliss. Hee hee he.
    I watched your show this evening on hunting the beast that roams the rocky crags and for a thirty minute show this was what swung around in my mind like monkeys in the jungle. You can pack a punch in thirty minutes if your aim is dead center. High five to the crew on that one. Think of it more as a response or some weird knee jerk reaction to what I was seeing or hearing. Somewhere in that show I laughed and thought if that cat got in your head maybe it caused you to have low testosterone temporarily? I jest. I have to rib you for something. Watching you and the outfitters vigil over those dogs was interesting. I remember when we had 45 walker hound/beagle crosses. Man what a dog. That was when they would let you run dogs. Now because of owner irresponsibility and not getting your dog back ‘the people’ complained so there went ‘running dogs’. I’m still not sure who ‘the people’ are but they seem to fit in the category of ‘kill joy’.
    I can say I have respect for those two guys you ponied up with. They know their stuff.
    There were several things that stood out about this episode. The first is the delivery of the message and its substance. I guess I could go over to Facebook or slap you on the back here with a ‘good job’ but it’s been my belief that some things deserve a little bit better than that. Maybe it’s just me? Even though it’s based around hunting the idea that one must get up every morning and keep hitting at ‘it’ with no promise of success or disappointment was spot on. I don’t like to use the words failure or defeat because those are terms that seem to bring about the ideal of finality. Nothing is ever final, maybe excruciatingly prolonged but never final. The comment about you ‘just have to keep hitting at it’ should be an epitaph for the birth-life-death cycle? There are other possibilities.
    I also noted that you do admit lack of knowledge and the pursuit of being taught something through interaction or doing. I find that somewhat humble. I am not saying you are perfect, glorifying you or indicating you are beyond reproach. It was something I noticed or observed. No hand it to you on a plate there. This to me would bring about a sense of accomplishment as the man with the black hat seemed impressed with you and your willingness to ‘get involved’. I don’t think people want to see someone that is a ‘know it all’ all the time. They might feel a little ‘less intelligent’. Your delivery is never belittling. Sometimes people have or have not formed preconceived notions on complete strangers but when they are benefited with the gift of being in their presence, find out they weren’t quite what they imagined. Sometimes it’s a quiet surprise because they are more. Benefits abound like a good rain. It falls down on you whether you like it or not. For me people are everything at birth and never lacking. You are what you are as you evolve from toadstool to god knows what. It’s up to you. I thought that went back to your comment about people leaving the civilized world to find their humanity. One problem of the world today is people do not know how to treat others or expose themselves to another’s good graces. If it gets to that point then maybe one needs to temporarily remove themselves to parts unknown to find out who they are and get their priorities straight because things in the world can twist one’s perception and view of natural things in unnatural ways. A gross distortion if you will. You promote doing things that are knew to you. I know if you express interest at first and someone strikes you down then ignore it and find another way. There is always another way. It’s like the mountain. You can go around it, over it, under it or straight through it but it is doable. You might die but give the fool his glory for trying. He will prove you wrong by finding his way to the other side even if it’s on a turkey feather blowing in the wind: improbable but not impossible.
    The concept of devotion stood out. If you asked someone what their idea of that was you might get a look of confusion or the generic answer based on religious belief? Food and prayer might be mentioned. I don’t know about that one.
    The capacity in which you devote yourself to that thing that brings you happiness, sanity, or humanity (as I am staying on the positive side of the butterfly’s wing) . I guess I could look up some catchy quote or steal someone’s brief on what it means but I am not.
    Just as those two cougar hunters hike for hours at the prospect of being delivered unto a cat they would show that same devotion if that very thing were ever threatened to the point of not being in their stead. That is the kind of devotion you can’t run from or ignore. It’s like your life’s bond and you are the steward or it even if you bring about its end.
    As I do not want to get drown down in the technicality of the process of hunting or a chase on a particular individual animal, I will not go there.
    Devotion could be that moment when you come across something that becomes a curiosity to you. It’s so radically different you could spend a lifetime observing, noting, or interacting with it and each time the experience is different. It could be a person, a thing, a concept, ideal, etc. No matter how close, far or wide away it is from you: it will have your devotion. Devotion is always a giving manner. Most devotions are for things that don’t reciprocate but if one is lucky that a devotion of the same magnitude is reciprocate then you have some pretty awesome mojo going on. My ideal of devotion and your ideal of devotion could be completely at odds. It’s the magnitude of the value you give to it. How much value do you place on the object of your affection? Emotion would definitely be involved up to its eyeballs. It always is.
    I can tell you one time when I was a teenager I walked in the woods along a fire brake my father had cut out with a crawler. Up ahead of me along the path out walks this animal with a long blocky tail black as night. I knew what it was . I guess I should have ran but I didn’t. I followed it. It eventually stopped and turned to the side then walked off into the hardwood. One day after that I found a double scratch pattern on a pine tree long as my arm. I guess it could have been a bear but you could see the hole marks in the bark. Dig and drag, over and over. The neighbor down the road said his cows way behind our house were being killed but he said it was wild dogs. This man had four bass ponds in different places, a crawfish pond, a cabin, cattle field, and the swamp in this one huge area. It was perfect habitat. From the age of 12-16 I walked all over that place. I even pack lunch I was gone so long. I did get organized when my dad bought me this old blue roan mare on deaths door. No one said a word. I even built a weird squirrel hut in some bushes and rolled briars back there. Haahahaa. Looking back I laugh at the shit I’ve done or gotten into. **shakes head at self**
    My dad had a co-worker that brought two cougar cubs to our house and asked me if I wanted them. He received them from this fireworks salesman that opened a roadside zoo. He got busted for narcotics. That man would bury money in Mason jars and PCV pipes in his yard. As to me getting the cubs, my dad said NO. One of them died of distemper. The other one he kept until it was too big and it cost a lot of money to feed then he quietly let it go in an undisclosed location in North Carolina. I dream about them a lot much like your fascination previously for buffalo. Of course I am trying to focus on the awesome or maybe I should say here the profane. I guess I could pen it down to devotion? Spiritually or otherwise.
    BTW. If you hunting a predator. It knows. A creature like that you’ll walk up on by accident because its right underneath you the whole time. Maybe its more curious of you then you of it but in life, as it is cruel, beating the biggest bully on the block will earn you respect but easy to become the bully yourself. Always be clear on why you’re doing something. It could be even better to hold on to the feeling that causes the blood to rush in your veins than to dwindle it away to nothing.
    Enjoy the novel. :D

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