Scat

I had in mind taking Bear out for some exercise today, and a little 1 on 1 without Chigger along. I’ll be doing that a lot this year, just taking 1 dog out at a time. Bear is the older and more settled dog, while Chigger still has a lot of pup in him. When I take them out together Chigger has play on his mind more than anything else, and he really doesn’t learn much that way. Without another dog to occupy his attention, Chigger pays more attention to me, and I might be able to actually teach him something. Anyway, today was Bear’s turn, and I think he really enjoys being away from that rambunctious pup for awhile.

I got off to a false start this morning. I started up the road that leads to the mountain behind my house, and as soon as I left the pavement I found that the road had been freshly graded. A little farther along and there was a really big sign that proclaimed the road was closed to all but emergency vehicles. This land is owned by a large timber company. I suspect they are about to start a logging operation, and there will be logging trucks running up and down the road. Nothing for it but to turn around and go somewhere else.

My next choice was a piece of BLM, or publicly owned land, a short drive away. By now it was starting to get beyond warm, but I put Bear out in front of the truck to let him stretch his legs. A couple of miles up the road, and he had about all he wanted, so I picked him up and continued up the hill to a spot where I wanted to set up a calling stand. I parked out on a ridge, and from there it is a short walk to the spot I had in mind.

A short distance from the truck I found there had been a fire, probably started by lightning. It was so recent that there were still hoses left laying on the ground by the fire crew.



Only a small area had burned, and I was soon past it. The spot where I call from hadn’t burned at all. By now it was really getting hot, but we found a good shady spot, and I set up with the camera on a tripod and Bear laying next to me. I have called fox from here several times, quite a few deer, and seen lion scratch marks; but have never called a lion from this spot. As hot as it was by now I had little hope of calling anything in, but stranger things have happened, so I played with an open reed call for about 20 minutes.

As I expected, I didn’t see anything but a couple of blue jays. As I usually do after finishing an unproductive call here, I took a little walk around the area looking for any fresh or old sign. I found some; not fresh, but proof that the cats had been here. I shot a short piece of video showing what I found.