The One That Got Away

The One That Got Away

by Bud Harding

It was December 7, 1996, 5:00 am and I was up getting ready to go hunting, which was no surprise to anyone that really knows me! The only surprise was that I was not going deer hunting. The weather was cool, we had already had a killing freeze and the deer should be moving good, but on this morning I was going hunting with the Wood County Wrecking Crew and we were going hog hunting. Now we weren’t going to be using rifles, bows and arrows or anything quite so conventional. No, we were using handcuffs, duct-tape, and some bad to the bone dogs.

The Wrecking Crew this morning would be made up of Kelly Massey, Terry Massey, John Simonek and myself. To get the full effect of this story you need a little background on these guys. Kelly and Terry have coon hunted and hog hunted for years. Kelly is one of the few people I know who really has his priorities right as he will hunt five days a week and work about 2. All this is to say that these brothers have seen a lot of hunting dogs and have owned several good ones themselves. John on the other hand is more of a deer hunting fanatic turned hog hunter. John has been extremely lucky in his selection of hog dogs as every one he has bought has turned out to be very good. Hunting with these guys is a lot of fun, however the quality of dogs they run is sometimes a little frustrating as they will almost always find the hogs first. Not to say that my dogs haven’t found their own hogs first with these guys but I don’t want to be figuring any percentages.

As I was getting ready to go I was having trouble deciding which two dogs to take. Hmm. Poco and Jewell or Mickey and Jewell. Jewell was definately in because she shows great potential as a hunting dog and just needs exposure. Mickey does also, and Poco looks so bad as he has been sick or something. "Hey Poco, you’re my main man, come on and load up. Next time Mickey". To know Poco is to love him, or hate him. He is a big pet, extremely good looking and full of energy. Energy which he uses to eat his food bowl, dog leash or at the present time his dog house which is one of those blue plastic barrels. I think this might be what has him looking a little poor at this time as he is way thinner than normal.

At 7:00 am I meet John at his house, we load his two dogs Rowdy & Charlie and we are off. I know this is going to be a good morning when we are going down the road and Charlie jumps up on the cab of my truck at 60 mph (96 kph). Loose dogs in the truck a whole other story later. We finally get to the lease, meet Terry & Kelly and discuss our strategy for the morning. We are all very anxious so we quickly lead the dogs into the woods a ways and cut ‘em loose. In almost no time Rowdy and Charlie strike a hog. Jewell and Poco were still wizzin’ and scratchin’ and before they know what was happening the chase was out of hearing distance. A few minutes later Terry’s dog Baldie struck. Baldie is open on track and was making a heck of a racket. This time Jewell and Poco fell in the chase and all three dogs quickly caught a shoat about 45 pounds (20.5 kg). We quickly leashed up the dogs and released the pig, none the better for the experience, and went on hunting as remember we were hog huntin’ not pig huntin’.

After we lead the dogs a safe distance from the shoat we cut ‘em loose again. Now Rowdy and Charlie are God knows where, as we have no tracking collars, and this hog they were on showed no inclination to sit up and be bayed. When we let Poco, Jewell and Baldie loose they all took off in the same direction and seemed to be working a trail. Out of sight they went. Now that is the way it is supposed to be. Men walkin’ and talkin’ and dogs out of sight huntin’. It wasn’t too awful long before we heard the dogs baying across the Sabine River. Great!! That water is cold and deep you know what I mean. So we listen as the dogs bay up and break, bay up and break, several times then silence. We were about to cross the river but now we are confused. Here comes Rowdy and Poco wet and a little flustered. You can just look at their faces and see it all over them. "Where have you lazy men been? This hog was 300 pounds (136 kg) with cutters like a longhorn". Darn dogs lie as bad as the hunters do. We ease on a little while and all of the dogs but Jewell come back and go out several times. Still no Jewell. At this time I am getting a little mad and embarrassed as I know Jewell has gone back to the truck. We hear a couple of barks from what appears to be across the river but Poco and Rowdy are in front of us a little ways. John says it isn’t Charlie and as Baldie makes a beeline across in front of us Terry says it wasn’t him. Now all this time poor ole Kelly has been leading a catch dog with nothing to catch. What a pain. Better Kelly than me. All of a sudden we have a bay on our hands right in front of us. We have sworn no more running to the bay but I can hardly wait so I trot a little. This is a bad hog and he moves a little so I try to get around on the other side of him as John, Kelly and Terry walk in with the catch dog. All of a sudden the hog or hogs break and run. Poco and Rowdy were the only dogs at the bay and when the hog broke he came right past me at about 10 yards (9 meters). I was callin’ them dogs for all I was worth to come get this big, black, monster, but they never came. I heard Terry holler "They got him over here." Fast hog I’m thinking ‘cause I just saw him go the other way. Anyway, on our way to the bay we compare notes. Terry, Kelly and John say "big, black and red hog". I say "no, solid black boar and very big". Big is all we can agree on. When we reach the bay this time the dogs are across the river right on the bank which is very steep, and baying a 200+ (91 kg) black and white boar. Now Poco is still in the mix but Rowdy and Baldie are nowhere to be found. They are probably still after the black boar or whatever. The real surprise is Poco’s companion on this bay which is Jewell and she appears to be either hurt or just plain worn out as she is baying from a ways back.

When we have watched the dogs work this boar for a while we all get a surprise. Jewell, the dog who would rather bay or catch a hog than eat or breathe swims the river to our side and sits down. I try to get her to go back but she is worn out. About this time Rowdy comes up on our side and he doesn’t want to cross the river to help. Now at this time I have to tell you that I am mighty proud of ole Poco, as he is working the fire out of this big boar. The hog continued to go up the bank on the other side ‘cause Poco will make him pay the price and he won’t swim the river ‘cause there we are with two, no three more dogs as here comes Baldie. Now Baldie is a young dog full of piss and vinager and into the river he goes with Rowdy right behind and Jewell reluctantly following. All right, four dogs hammering away at that ole boar but he is not easily intimidated and won’t be caught by these four dogs. All of a suddenCharlie shows up and with no hesitation on his part he swims the river and joins right in. Okay. Five dogs - what a show but we still can’t do anything as we are on the wrong side of the river with the catch dog.

Well, Terry and I can’t take it any longer. Terry heads west and I go east looking for a log to cross on. Before I get very far, John and Kelly go to hollerin’ something and the dogs have gotten quiet so I come back to find the hog trying to swim the river with Poco and Jewell alias ‘the piranas’ and Baldie all holding on to his ears. When he finally makes it across we take a couple of dog leashes and make a loop. Kelly leans over the bank and gets this boar to bite the loop. When he does he jerks it tight over his nose behind his top cutters. What a mess. The bank was straight down 6 or 7 feet (2 meters) to the water and try as we may we couldn’t lift the hog out with all the dogs hangin on his ears. Poco was the first one off as he was now worn to a frazzle. He was in poor shape to begin with but now he could hardly make it up the bank. I was relieved to get my man on a leash and get him out of harms way. Now Jewell wasn’t so easy as she has a grip like a pit bull, but somehow we did get her off.

At about the same time I was leashing Jewell to another tree the hog worked loose from the leashes and was being bayed primarily by Baldie as John called Rowdy and Charlie out. It didn’t take this ole boar long to get enough of Baldie’s lack of respect on this side of the river as this bank was very narrow and Baldie was really crowding him. After promply issuing Baldie a good thrashing the big boar started making his way up the bank. Kelly was hollerin’ "get the catch dog". I raised up to see the hog coming right at us. What a rush ! This hog was only 7 or 8 feet (2.5 meters) away and closing fast. I was fixin’ to see Little Dog, the pit bull, do her thing right on top of me. Wrong again! When I let go of Little Dog she could not see the hog from her angle so she went right off the steep bank into the river where the hog had been for so long. It was at this time when John and I both realized we were nowhere as brave as the dogs, as this hog more or less just strutted between us with a rather threatening attitude, slinging his head side to side, sending us for trees. As he made his way past and headed for a thicket John took off with Rowdy and Charlie. Baldie fell in also and Poco and Jewell were right back in when I unleashed them. Minutes later all five of the dogs had this dazed and confused hog bayed again but still not caught. Kelly is fifty yards away and coming fast with Little Dog when the boar charges me and John. The boar then breaks and runs and John says "let’s let him go and catch these dogs." I want this hog really bad but Baldie is limping, Poco can hardly walk and none of the other dogs are looking all that spiffy either, so before one of them gets really hurt we catch them up and regroup. Terry had found him a log to cross the river on and during all of the action was on the wrong side. Finally we all found a good place to sit down and recount the events. Poco starts to look a little better as he could hardly walk when I caught him the second time. Even though Poco should have quit a dozen times he never did. He showed that he has a lot of heart and I am very proud of him.

Now no one knows exactly how we bayed a black and red boar and had another solid black one right by him and then finally wound up on a black and white one. The only thing I know is that Jewell was not back at the truck and that was my two dogs baying that ole black and white hog all by themselves. This was our first hunt in quite a while and Poco and Jewell slept very well that night, and hardly moved at all the next day. They better get ready though because deer season is almost over and there is going to be plenty more days like this. The only thing that really bothers me about this hunt is that I’m concerned that Poco and Jewell might think that this hog really got away.