Little Dog Lost

Today was the opening day of rifle season. I did manage to get into the woods and on my stand before daylight this time. Since it was a balmy 17 degrees I was wearing several layers of clothing. Around noon, I walked back to the truck for a cup of hot coffee and shed some of the now unneeded clothing. On the way back to my stand, I met the coonhound pictured above.

Coon hunters are a little strange to begin with but one who runs his dogs the night before opening day of rifle season is way out in left field. I tried to shoo said coonhound on towards the road and he did go for a ways but soon was back on my heels following me. Getting lost is part of coon hunting, so all dogs come equipped from the factory with a collar inscribed with the owner's name, address, and phone number. Using my cell phone I notified the owner that he could find his dog tied to my truck.

After waiting for about 30 minutes, I decided to go back into the woods and continue to hunt. Now the coonhound had other ideas and wasn't about let his new human just walk off. So he started baying in that deep rich coonhound voice that carries for miles. My stand was about a mile down the ridge and I could hear him all the way. Just before I got to my evening stand, he stopped so I figured his owner had shown up and claimed him. About 5 minutes later, I heard what sounded like a deer running through the leaves behind me and then felt a very cold wet nose on the side of my neck. I said a few very choice words to the owner of the wet nose and he got the idea right away. But still not about to let go of his new human he ran off about 20 yards and lay down behind the log in the picture. If you look slightly left of center and underneath the log you can just see him curled up in the leaves.
Now one thing you can be sure of is that coonhounds and hunting from a stand don't go together, so after a few minutes I gave up, called his owner again, and walked him back to the truck and waited for said owner to show up. Since I had walked about 4 miles already today I decided that it was nap time so I went home and took one.