Merry Christmas my dear readers. Thank you for following along as I share with my journey into houndsmanship — all the comments, emails, and messages of encouragement you all send me are extremely meaningful to me and I don’t take the time you spend engaging with my content for granted. 2022 has been a historic year for me and Hound on the Run and I can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store. I have many more videos in the queue that you’ll soon see on YouTube, and even more exciting, I have at least one more book project up my sleeve. Knowing that I get to share what I love doing with a group of incredible people who are also obsessed with hounds is hugely motivating … so thanks again!
This week’s video was recorded about 6 weeks ago on a day when I snuck away from work to cash in on the first good snow of the year up in the mountains. As you may have read in chapter 6 of Cat Dog Chronicles, I have a love-hate relationship with hunting in the snow. Being able to see a cat’s tracks in the snow is invaluable for someone like me with dogs who are still learning the cat hunting game, but there are so many challenges that the snow brings that it can be really frustrating. I’ll admit that I used to hate the snow a lot more than I do now, and the more time I spend out in it driving around looking for cat tracks, the more I recognize what a remarkable tool the white stuff is.
When hunting snow, conditions are everything. Yes, it can be easier for dogs to run a cat track in the snow than it is on bare ground, but that’s only if it’s good snow we’re talking about. And where I hunt in the Coast Range of Oregon, opportunities to hunt good snow are few and far between. As you’ll see in the video, the snow conditions were far from ideal. But even when it’s all wet, sloppy, and splotchy, I’ve grown to really enjoy the act of hanging my head out the window looking for tracks.
Even when they aren’t runnable, laying my eyes on those silver dollar-sized paw prints with the tiny little toes is exhilarating.
I hope you enjoy this week’s video, let me know what you think in the comments.
Oh yeah one more thing … even if you don’t watch the whole video, I highly encourage you to skip to the very end for a healthy dose of comedy at my expense. It’s too gross to share here in text so you’ll just have to watch. Hounds are so nasty!!!!
Merry Christmas,
Niklas