I stopped in to say hello to a farmer who allows me access to deer hunt. He's a dairy man and was in the barn getting his cows ready for the afternoon milking. I went into the barn through the milk house and was nearly tackled by a cute little button buck fawn that thinks it's a dog.



It then ran down the stanchion aisle and darted around the lot of Holsteins.



A minute later Ken the farmer saw me and laughed. He says did you meet Johnny? I said I believed I did. Johnny then ran back to us and begged to be scratched. Kind of different petting a live deer. Normally the ones I touch are dead. Gave me a perspective on how small the fawns are at this time of the year.



ANYWAY, what I was getting at was there were so many cats. They were all different shapes, colors and sizes. They were all over. Probably living it up on free milk and all. I don't think I have ever seen so many cats at once.



After chatting awhile I went out to stalk some of Johnny's relatives. See the Big Game forum for what happened to me out there.

Yup, dairy farms are a popular place to dump cats, I know this to be true, as my uncle owns the smallest Grade A dairy left in the USA. He is perpetually cat-poor, I keep trying to get my cousin to weed them out, but he says they keep the rat numbers down (Yet the dumb sonuvagun is always bitching about the lack of rabbits on his place, no quail, either). I have taken my HMR up there to help out, but he isn't having any of it. I must be adopted or something. Heck, I know a guy in Indiana who has at least 20 breeding pussies around his farm, so he has a continous supply of targets. A true conservationist, as he does weed them out. He's trying to get game fences built, so he can guide gullible Floridians on high-falutin' lion hunts.

Well Hell, sign my ass up for that'n! YEEEE HAAAAW! A Hungry Hussy Hunt!

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.Gullibles.Travels

The funny thing is I never realized he had cats and so many. I've never seen them in the field which I thought was odd. I don't think they leave the barn! Now I have to make sure Johnny doesn't leave the barn as deer hunting has been dry so far.

Even worse, some of the locals are letting their mongrel dogs run loose and they are killing deer at night in packs. This is creating a farmer against farmer situation out there cuz deer hunting is a major event. It ain't gonna be pretty in the end. Some of those combines are bigger than houses and I can see them chopping a house up right fast with one.

Most of 'em though are carrying .243's in their trucks for opportune moments.

Are not feral dogs as good a target as feral crats? Bigger to? derf

I have never made a distinction between the two in the woods but for some reason I take no real joy in shooting a dog. There have been years on our lease were the dog/coyote shooting was better than the dogs by a 3:1 ratio. Oddly enough, when Farmer ----- died so too did the issue for the most part.

Cats are more of a challenge, dogs in the woods are like ogres. Loud and obnoxious slobs.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.KeepingTheWoods.Natural

Once, as a kid, I was walking in some thick woods with my dog. We were exploring, as we often did and by ourselves, as usual. It had been rainy so the woods were dark, mossy and there were lots of mushrooms and ferns growing all over. Well you know how a wet woods is kind of quiet?

I was walking steady looking for a blue heron rookery that was located deep in the woods. My dog was running ahead of me just being a dog. I heard a sound behind me and looked to see two strange dogs running right towards me with teeth bared. I could hear them growling. I had no idea where they came from as there were no homes in the vicinity.

This was big woods and NO TREE BRANCHES because all of the trees were real big ones. You know, mature oak and maple. I was not seeing an escape and froze, the dogs were running full throttle. Think of your worst evil, devil dog movie scene and that's what it was like watching them come towards me. Then I had one of those slow motion visions and the action slowed and time nearly stood still. Those dogs were getting closer and closer and I could see a lot of teeth.

Suddenly my dog came exploding from behind me and he met the angry curs head on. Two against one and I figured my dog was a gonner and then I was gonna be toast for sure. After all, he was a Golden Retriever, not known for aggressive tempers.

Well, long story short, it was a noisy fight, I was scared and my dog kicked cur ass. The two bullies ran off squealing like pigs. We finished looking for our herons. I never saw those dogs again.

Aye, once upon a time when I was actually 4 years old, living in Columbus, OH(World Famous State that discovered FLA. and voter fraud), I was walking with my bro somewhere when a silent dobbie hit me from behind w/o warning. I bled a lot, and was lucky to have survived. My left thigh was a mess.

In the years that followed my bro-in-law was severly mauled(3 recontruction operations on face/head and left arm) by a pit bull, both of my parents bitten by a brindle boxer in their yard within the last 2 years. Reflecting on this I have decided that the two pit bulls I capped some time back did make me smile. I'd rather shoot a cat, but fighting dogs are okay targets too... Can't say their owners would be any safer if their timing was off a bit.

Just thinking about this makes me want a drink.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www. .

Growing up on a farm, somedays you might have 20 cats, by the next morning you might have 18 or 19 left, especially during the winter months, the dumb bastards would sleep under the cows in the bedding where it was warm and come to find out, they do crush down to about 1" to 2" tall, after it gets layed on, then you just kick them into the gutter and hall them out.We have about 20 to 30 in the fall, by spring we were down to about 1/2 dozen or so of them, either cows got them or the exausht fans would get them, stupied bastards would climb onto the motors when they weren't running and fall asleep, fan would start up and all you would hear was a short meow, and what a mess, only the smart ones would live a long life, they must learn from the stupied ones what not to do, but then sometimes if it got to be to many, they would accidently run into a claw hammer. Stray dogs we just plain shoot them, can't afford to lose calves.

The last dog that come for me nearly got a 240 gr XTP for his troubles. I was out prospecting in an urban(sort of)area and when it got to dark to stumble around in the creek bottoms I climbed out to a cull de sac. Lucky for that mutt he never left his own property. My partner was a little shocked when I pulled the SBH, and he said"you wouldn't have shot it ,would you?". My reply was,"I'm not going to let him chew on me"! derf

A place I hunted on in Western NSW had heaps of cats around the house (15-20). The reason was snakes! The cats would find the brown snakes before the kids did. The cats killed alot of snakes but many didn't survive the encounter and by the end of summer the farmer would only have 7-9 left.

Some cats take a great interest in hunting snakes. I have had some that did. The two I have now don't bother with them. I like snakes so that is good. I just released a small snake I found on the local Post Office lawn at my place. Yes, I had Gubmint permission to relocate said Federal property.

I do wish my cats would take interest in moles.

They do not like bats either though some of my pet lizards will eat bats. Bakes, that's what you need, are some good hungry lizards for the bat problem you have.

That Hoosier Hussy Hunt, as you called it, would certainly be a class act, the operator has a .416 Ruger Rigby to back you up, if charged by a porch panther. I think he prefers his 1911 Schmidt Rubin for the smaller stuff, or his Steyr 300 meter rifle (also in .7.5 Swiss, he has eclectic tastes). I'll let you know if he ever decides to clean out the pride, as I doubt I could handle all the action alone.

There wouldn't be enough lizards!! When we had the bats around base we also had some fat Olive Pythons in the trees, and some fat eagles flying around as well

Stock up on those pythons, Bakes, I bet they can chow down. Don't you have any big monitor lizards around there that I see your buddy Irwin parading around all the time?