I Wrote A Book
tl;dr: I wrote a book, and it will be published very soon. It’s called Cat Dog Chronicles and it’s all about the journey I’ve been on with my dogs as we learn how to catch bobcats in the Coast Range mountains of Oregon. Be sure to subscribe so you’ll be among the first to know when it’s available.
On February 13th, 2022, I made a vague post on Instagram saying that “All the pieces came together…” and said that the full story was coming to Hound on the Run. The photo was of Whiskey, my old pup-trainer cat dog given to me by my mentor, sitting at the base of a tree looking up at a bobcat she had treed with my other female, Coulee.
While I had been under many cat trees by that point, that bobcat Whiskey was looking at was the first I had ever caught with my own dogs, unaided by my mentor and his pack. It was a goal I had been striving to achieve ever since I decided to switch from hunting raccoons to bobcat—a historical day I will never forget.
As I sat down to write the story of that first cat we caught, I had every intention to share it with you here on Hound on the Run. But as I continued writing, trying to capture all the little details that made the achievement so special, I soon realized I had a lot more to say than would fit into a single newsletter or blog post. The words kept flowing and the story grew and grew as I unraveled and pondered on how incredibly complicated and difficult the process of catching bobcats with dogs really is.
Anyone who says hunting with hounds is easy or is cheating has no idea what they’re talking about.
I was a writer long before I became a hound hunter and one of my biggest goals in life has always been to write books. About seven years ago when I first started taking writing seriously, I realized that I didn’t have the level of life experience required to write interesting books that anyone would want to read. So those book goals and ambitions ended up on the backburner as I made a few different career pivots over the years.
I started Hound on the Run two years ago to get back into writing for myself. Initially, my goal was to simply treat Hound on the Run like a journal where I’d share the journey of learning how to hunt with hounds in modern times as someone brand new to the sport. The newsletter was supposed to be a creative outlet for me outside my day job where I could focus on honing my writing skills and nothing more.
But sadly, I got distracted early on with Hound on the Run and ended up trying to do too much too soon, which lead to burn out and a loss of interest in the overall project. Instead of keeping the focus on writing, I then started the Hound on the Run Podcast. Then I had the genius idea of trying to make YouTube videos that would accompany the podcast and newsletter. But it was all too much to keep up with and I stopped putting out content consistently. While I greatly enjoyed creating the handful of podcast episodes I put out there and have no regrets, looking back I wish I would’ve stayed focused on writing without getting distracted by all the other stuff. At some point I’ll dive back into recording more interviews with other houndsmen but there’s only so much time in the day.
When hunting season came around last fall, I ended up pressing pause on all things Hound on the Run. I didn’t make a big announcement or anything but decided that all my free time would be dedicated solely to hunting and nothing else. My main goal for the season was to switch my dogs from raccoons to bobcats—which I’ve since learned is a tremendous undertaking.
This past bobcat season turned out to be more eventful and mind blowing than I ever could have imagined, and I got a huge spark to get back into writing. I felt like I finally had that first-hand, real-world experience necessary to write something compelling.
Hunting with my dogs has taught me so many lessons not only about hunting, but about life in general, and one of the biggest was this:
Focus on one thing at a time.
So that’s what I’ve done over the past five months by pouring everything I have into writing and completing my first book.
That’s right, I wrote a book. And it will be published very soon.
My book is called Cat Dog Chronicles and it’s all about the process I went through over the course of a full hunting season as I learned how to catch bobcats with my dogs.
This is a first-hand account told by me, but in many ways, the main character is Whiskey and I go into great detail about all the things she taught me about running cats. I also relied heavily on my mentor to help me figure things out and much of this is documented in the book.
Coming in at over 43,000 words, this is the largest cohesive piece of writing I’ve ever completed and I’m ecstatic to share it with the world.
My talented wife, who is also an author, designed the cover and it’s all shaping up very nicely. We are self-publishing Cat Dog Chronicles and it will be available on Amazon both as a print paperback and as a Kindle e-book.
To give everyone a taste of what the book entails, over the course of the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing pieces of writing pulled from the twelfth chapter of the book in which I go over all the lessons and insights I’ve learned running the hills with my pack this last year.
For those of you who either can’t read or choose not to read, I’ll also be recording and publishing the audio version on the Hound on the Run Podcast, so be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
So stay tuned, and if you haven’t, please consider subscribing so you’ll be among the first to know when Cat Dog Chronicles goes live.
Cheers,
Niklas