Went out the other morning and invited a buddy who has one of my dogs. I brought Gator and Blaze, my buddy brought Blazes mom Fancy. Cut the dogs loose at 6:45 and hunted for about a 1hr when we realized we were talking to much and not paying attention to the where the dogs were!! Check the Garmin and the dogs are 970yds away down in the river bottom. I can see the dogs are splitting up when I pull the map up on the Astro. Gator going east, Blaze heading west, and Fancy going North. Decide to sit tight and see if we hear anything or see anything on the Astro for us to go to that dog. Fancy comes back after a half hour, and now Gator and Blaze are 18800yds apart in different directions!!
Blaze shows treed on the Astro so I decided to have my buddy go to Blaze with Fancy and I would go towards Gator. I am glad we tapped are Astros to each others dog collars so we could track each others dogs. He takes off towards Blaze with Fancy and I head to Gator. Gator motors out of the swamp about 700yds down the trail heading south then cuts down the middle of a 1.5mi x 900yd block of nasty woods and palmettoes. I try my best to stay up with him on the firebreak I am on. He shows treed at 560yds, but I am not hearing him bay or a fight so I try to get through the jungle of woods to him. Stop after going about 250yds to check the Garmin and see Gator is now motorin west and is 900yds away. I go back to the firebreak because its easier traveling and start trying to catchup to Gator. He is treed and running on and off for the next 1.5mi!! I call my buddy on the phone to let him know that Gator and me are heading in his direction to meet me by a big creek that the block of woods Gator is in tapers down to cross the creek.
I meet up with my buddy and he said that Blaze had a big fat sow caught, and that he never heard or saw Gator pass out of the woods. Pull Gator up on the Astro and he is 550yds west of us in the river. We head towards him and he shows treed again, but we are still not hearing anything. Gator is a rough bay dog, and normally waits for another dog before he will catch anything big and rank on his own. Head his way and after 200yds he is going again. Get within 250yds of him and it shows him treed again, buy he is back where we started are hunt. Get to my truck and he is laying in the bushes behind my truck waiting for me!! At first I was pissed off he left the hunt to come back to the truck so I called him to me when I got over and dropped the tailgate and he just looks at me and wags his tail?? Tell him to load and come to me and he gets up and thats when I see his hole right shoulder from the armpit to the top of his shoulder is wide open and blood all over his side!! Damn!! Get the first aid kit out and do some doctering, 15 staples later and we head home. I think my Blaze pup is starting to make my Gator dog alittle to gritty for his own good!! I guess he will learn to wait when the boar is rank, or not learn and not come out of the woods one hunt.
