king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated April/May 2008 - Index

set and baited my fi rst trap in a cubby
set. I was so excited that I wanted to
check the trap twenty times that day.
The next morning when we checked
the traps, I was somewhat defl ated
to fi nd that my fl ag was still up and
the trap was still set. Then Dave
explained that bobcats have a large
home range and that in our part of the
country it could take a tom a couple of
weeks to return to the area. This was
not exactly the answer I was looking
for, but then again its called trapping,
not catching. On Day Two, I was
anxious to check the traps, but wasn’t
expecting much. Dave had caught a
nice medium-sized tom on one of the
traps, so my excitement level went up
a little. When we approached the area
of my sets, Dave scanned for the fl ags
with his binoculars and told me that
it looked like the fl ag was down. I
started to get extremely excited when
Dave took a deep breath and said,
“You have a huge tom in your trap.” I
almost tore the truck door off trying to
get out. I ran up that mountain so fast
that Dave thought I should try out for
the Olympics. When I got there, I was
greeted by the biggest Tom bobcat I
have ever seen in my life. He was,
without a doubt, the most beautiful
animal I have ever seen. We took a
couple of extra minutes taking photos
of the cat and I, of course, made Dave
take about a million pictures of me
with the cat after I shot it. What an
experience.
To say this life journey
has been interesting would be an
understatement. In two years I have
done more in the outdoors than most
people do in a decade. As I look to
the future, I keep memories of the
past close to my heart. I am lucky
and blessed to have experienced so
many “fi rsts.” I hope that the future
is fi lled with many more.