HUNTING
O Cat Thirty by Raf Viniard
It was the night before opening day of cat season , it was lightly snowing outside and all was quiet in the house except for the clicking sound of George and I texting back and forth talking about the next days cat hunting plans . Since neither of us drew a cat tag we would be helping Teresa Joiner fill her tag first and if time allowed help Isiah Joiner fill his tag . George Nass , the owner of Baldy Mountain Outfitter has some really good dogs so the odds of us treeing a cat on opening day with fresh snow was almost 100 %.
The dogs were ready , tracking collars charged , the truck loaded , radios installed and running lights positioned . A quick trip into town the next morning to fuel up and grab enough junk food to preserve our bodies into the hereafter and then it we would be off to find a smoking hot cat track in the newly fallen snow .
As we were texting back and forth the topic finally came up as to what time we needed to leave . I was thinking maybe 6:00AM at the earliest . Boy was I wrong ... the text screen showed , “ I will be by to pick you up between 3:00-3:30 ”. Holy cat ... that was only 3-4 hours away not counting getting my things laid out before I could crawl into bed . Let ’ s just say we wrapped up that texting conversation quickly and I was off to get my stuff laid out in the bathroom so I wouldn ’ t wake sleeping beauty at o dark thirty in a few hours . As I finally crawled into bed around midnight I was setting my alarm for 2:30am , Pam heard me mumbling and the glow from the phone lit the room . She asked , “ What time are you leaving in the morning , ( really it was today already )?” and I said “ Around 3:00 .” Things were quiet for about ten seconds and then all she said was , “ Good luck , I love you .” and she was back fast asleep .
As I lay there trying to get to sleep all I could think about was , “ I hope my alarm goes off ... I will never hear the end of it if I am not ready .” Finally I fell asleep , it felt like I had just closed my eyes and I was immediately awaken by that horrible sounding phone alarm . I made more noises trying to shut it off than the alarm itself but sleeping beauty never rolled over . I knew if I did not set my feet on the floor I would never get up . I bounced up ran into the bathroom with my phone to see if George had texted me yet . I looked outside and yep more fresh snow ! I had just got dressed an sure enough my phone beeps alerting me of an incoming text , “ You ready ?”, George asked .
Why of course I was ready this is opening day of cat season and Whiskey my pup needed some cat time and a chance to run with the big dogs . This would be his second year of cat hunting so we were ready to go .
I grabbed all my gear and set it on the tailgate of my truck . Since we would be taking George ’ s truck I checked my gear twice to make sure I had everything . I went ahead and let Whiskey out of his pen ... he immediately headed for the back of the house .
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Educate Your Legislator Using The Internet Class 8 Jan 2017 , Sunday 2-3 PM Odd Fellows Hall , 502 Main St , Thompson Falls Call for information : 406-826-5318
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