I do as well.. Got out of coon hunting when we had kids. But I've always had a fiest at the house or close by. Have 2 Cauleys right now. I'm not allowed to own any other strain..... Uncle George would shoot me
Had a George Cauley dog for 17 years. Best squirrel dog I have ever hunted with and I have hunted with a lot of them. When she died, it broke my heart. But, she was just worn out. When I would let her out of her pen in her later days, she would go to the nearest tree and start sniffing around it and looking up. I had to put her down this past February. Have another feist, not George Cauley, that I trained with my old dog. She is good but not as good as my ole Dixie. I had her cremated and when I go in the ground, she is going with me, never to be separated again.
Boy howdy, this thread brings back memories. Growing up my best friend lived on the other side of town.. 20 minutes by bicycle..40 by Snapper Comet. His neighbor had a dog that loved to hunt tree rats. She'd see me coming down the road and would be waiting at the end of his driveway when we came out the door. We couldn't walk the 1/2 mile to Nose's Creek swamp fast enough for her, she kept running ahead and the back to us as if saying "Come on you two.. there's rats to be killed in them woods." After a whole day in the swamp we still had to drag / tote her home. Good times.
Commander here is, well I suppose a mutt. He was adopted from an animal shelter the first year I got into falconry. He started hunting under a redtail hawk the first season I had him. He's caught like 14 squirrels on the ground the hawk made bail out of a tree. His job is to keep the squirrel tree'd for the hawk. But if that squirrel hits the ground he's all over it. He's the best hunting dog/family companion I've ever had.