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Blaze was "The Dog" until we were given
another
opportunity to buy two treeing feists from a man my stepdad knew. Their names were Smokey and Bandit. Unfortunately, we were forced to put
Bandit down only a few weeks after we brought her home! She was diagnosed with
one of the most deadliest diseases for a puppy, "parvo".
We felt lucky that Smokey showed no signs of the disease. In just
a few short weeks we found that Smokey, the oldest dog,
was a prime time squirrel hunting machine. He could do it all, and he is
a timbering fool! The first time we turned him out, we were hunting
along the Savannah River, we were there ten minutes and all of a sudden,
we heard him treeing about fifty yards out deep in the woods. We
trekked up the hill to one of the biggest white oaks I had ever seen. We
circled that tree for about fifteen minutes before we finally spotted
the squirrel at the very top of the tree. I reared back with my browning
20 gauge pump and let her rip. The squirrel came tumbling from the
top of the giant oak, Smokey was there waiting.
He did his precautions to make sure that it was dead, before prancing
over to set it in my hand. From there, we sought the main trail in which
we were walking on, and this became a habit for us, by the end of the
day, we had racked an astounding twenty-seven squirrels in three hours
of hunting.
We were fascinated by Smokey's hunting skills, so we decided to make a visit
to the treeing hound capital of the world, Orangeburg, South Carolina.
If you're a real squirrel or coon hunter, then you
know exactly what is held in this phenomenal place, the Grand American.
There are more dogs in this one area than you can shake a stick at.
Every type of hunting dog you could imagine. This is also where I obtained my number 3 and number 4 dogs to
my kennel. These are Parnell's Carolina Curs, they go by Speck and Cricket. While
at the Grand American, my stepdad and I were invited to a big hunt in
upper South Carolina. It was there I met Mr. Parnell, he had brought along a
couple of male
Carolina Curs that he had for sale. I couldn't pass up this opportunity for two prime stud
dogs to breed with the two females that I had bought at the Grand
American, so I brought home what is now Jig and Jag.
Now, I can't forget the most playful pup of them all, we found her at our
hunting club as a stray, her name is Scout. When found her she was
nothing but skin and bones,
we brought her home and washed her up and gave her some food and water.
Today she is a healthy squirrel dog in training.
Some people call me crazy for having so many squirrel dogs. Some ask how
I do it?
"If you could go back, would you buy all of those
dogs again"? I tell them all, "I would never change a thing, I did all
these things for a reason and I will never regret a single one"!
I love
squirrel hunting and everything about it. These dogs mean the world to
me, All of them! |
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