03/29/2026
Steel’s Buddy’s first hog, and hopefully not my last.
Well last night was interesting… around 8:45pm I ended up getting some notifications that I had a pesky rooter coming through one of our client’s spots down the road. It’s been a while, so I decided to get geared up to go solo. Packed up TBH’s Emma Lue (TBH’s Sue x NML’s Bailey), Ellie May (Fred x Stewball), and Blanca (TBH’s Emma Lue x TBH’s LT), as well as Steel’s Buddy.
There was about 30-40 mins from the time I was notified and started gearing up to when I dropped dogs on the tracks. I’m not a firefighter by any means, but that’s not too shabby of a response time, if I do say so myself. The dogs and I were inbound hot! We got to the property and went in all sneaky-like… I turned the buggy off before I got to the gate; got the gate all opened and ready; then cut all the dogs loose, except for Emma Lue. She’s like my pistol, even though I carry one of those too. The dogs do their normal dillydallying before they get to it. I push them in on foot for about 100 yards while everyone is peeing and whatnot, and then they started hunting pretty good. I figured it wouldn’t be long before they were on top of him, considering it hadn’t been long before he had been there. In all actuality, it was about an hour before anybody would line anything out.
The dogs and I are all a bit rusty, so I’m guessing it just took some time to knock the dust off, but Ellie May finally lined the trail out. Once I could hear that her bark was serious, and that she was pretty settled into it, I pulled Emma off the buggy and headed to her on foot. At this point, Ellie May was about 300 yards away and a lot of thick brush and creek bottoms in between us.
Thankfully, Emma Lue is aging fairly well at 9 this May, and is still moving through the woods with some decent agility, which, Lord knows, makes it easier on my aging body. Emma and I have been in the woods so long together now that she knows how I move. She pays attention to commands like “up” to get over trees at the same time as me; “down” to go under limbs, and support some of my weight as well, while we do it together; and some other commands. She does all of this while we are moving quickly through the woods, switching from being side by side to being in line with one another. She knows when to stay close to my leg or hip based off how I lead her. Normally she is closely in front of me, but does not lead me while I’m leading her, if that makes sense. We have a very good relationship formed by many trips to the woods and many battles together over the years. The same should be said for Ellie May, at 9 this July, as she’s made a fine dog indeed. She’s definitely a chip off the old block from her ol’ man, Fred. May he rest in peace.
…back to heading into Ellie May being bayed up SOLID, and solo at that. A good bay sure is a beautiful sound, especially after not hearing it for a long while; hair standing up on the back of your neck, and adrenaline flowing in full force; but a solo bay, with serious tone coming from the dog, and with an urgency in her voice as to say, “I’m looking at him!!!!”, and it is just about the tip top for a feller like me that fancies a dog that knows its job.
Then of course, there are plenty of Black Locust and Mesquite trees, not to mention thorn briars, down trees that have thorns, holes in the ground covered up by tall grass, tall grass, saw grass, thick blood weeds, creeks, fences, and all kinds of other stuff you can think of to get in between me and where we’re trying to go. Emma and I get within 90 yards of Ellie May still going at it, and I loosed her lead. She took off like a bullet out of a gun into the dark. Buddy had been out, we’ll call it hunting, not really doing what Ellie May was doing, but doing his own thing within 300-400 yards of us; so I’d say within earshot. He’s new to this whole thing. He’s seen a few in the woods, but never got one stopped. So this was his opportunity to get on a good one. I guess hearing us moving through the woods towards a bark, Buddy decides he wants to join us. When I let Emma go he went in behind her.
Since I left the house so quick, I didn’t grab my GoPro. It’s always nice to try and get good footage. Who knows when I might decide to make another video one day. My phone was in one hand, and, using the other to shield my face from branches, I pushed through thicknastyness! It didn’t feel good, but it would have been worse with a catch dog in tow. The dogs are doing their best to fight this hog, I’m doing my best to get to them, and I’m sure by now they’re getting tired because I was tiring quickly. Then I hear water… fun times! It’s been cold, but I was hoping it’s not gona be too bad. I shimmied down a big creek bank and moved my light to see a big boar hog with teeth. He’s moving Emma, Ellie May, and Buddy around like it’s nothing. They’re in knee deep to me water, the water is probably 60 degrees or below, and he’s getting the best of the dogs. I’m sure he’s bigger than me, and I’m a solid 200. He might push 250, I don’t know at this point, I knew I needed to get him done and quick before it got seriously bad.
I made it down the bank, pushed into the cold’ish water, and I started waiting on a good chance to get ahold of something to grab onto. It can get precarious quickly in the water. As I was pushing through to them, they had pushed deeper. I was now closer to waist deep, and the dogs were swimming, and Emma was still caught thankfully. As they were coming back towards the creek bank, I made it to them. He pinned Emma against the creek bank. He was able to shake her off his ear due to the bad angle she had, and Buddy was coming back from the deeper water, swimming to get to us. The boar hog was loose now, and loose just long enough to start heading in my direction with some gumption. We looked each other in the eyes, and I smacked him directly on the top of the head with my Bowie knife as hard as I could trying frantically to get the heck away from him, all while dang near being stuck in ankle-deep mud, in waist deep water. The stuff we get into with our dogs….
God was on my side last night because about the time the hog started to regroup and come back at me, Emma and Buddy both caught him. He started turning circles again, but not able to move as good due to the water. I got in there amongst them and the chaos, grabbed onto one of the hog’s back legs, with my fingertips far from touching one another, and tried to insert the Bowie knife into him on that same available side with my right arm. With the angle, the size of the hog, the dogs caught, and being in the water, I couldn’t get it through his shield. After it all, I just didn’t have it in me. I tried one last good downward stab into his side, which I never do because of the very real possibility of stabbing a quickly-moving dog, and in it went; a full length, 12 inch Bowie. I hear the big boy squeal under his breath, and I knew it was then in our favor.
Since I’ve wrestled a few hogs in my day, I decided to cut the fight short, and tried to end it quick without having to use anymore “blunt force”. I grabbed the back leg away from me, stood up and pulled up, and off the ground his legs came. He was fighting to keep his head above water as we were fighting to keep it under. The dogs never quit, so I surly can’t. In the process of the hog drowning, he bit the crap out of Buddy’s chin. It pi**ed Buddy off something fierce. He now has a new-found hate for hogs to say the least. It ended right then and there for that boar hog.
Since I was already drenched, I sat down right there on that creek bank while Buddy stayed stickin’ an jabbin’ at a dispatched hog; Emma beginning to stove up, but spry and happy at the same time, having finally gotten on another one; and Ellie May, devotedly hunting the immediate 100-150 yard circle around us, checking in with us every now and then while we’re all picking ourselves up out of the mess we got into.
On the way into the water I was videoing on my phone. When the hog rushed me, my phone went into the water. It stayed there the duration of the battle… Once I got the dogs situated on trees, I went to searching the bottom of a creek for my phone. To my absolute surprise, I found it, and, it was still on! Not “filming”, but on nevertheless. I quickly shut it off hoping to save it. iPhone 14 Pro Max for the win on this one!!!!
There was a lot that went through my head last night as I was sitting there on that creek bank. There I was, gearing up solo again, not knowing how many more times I’ll be able to do so; gearing up two 9 year old dogs off my yard and out of our stuff and efforts, still getting it done, but not knowing how many more times they have in front of them. Yet, in the same breath sat there, ready to go, The next generation of my hog dogs, Buddy, saw and helped on his first hog in the woods, and it was a good one. The ebb and flow of life and love is so present with animals. For me personally, dogs are a very real and constant reminder of unconditional love, and at the same time the undeniable truth that with all life, love, and everything in between comes death. I’ve buried a lot of really fine dogs out back of my place. So many I’ve lost count now. Over the last 16 years, these working animals have become a cornerstone of my life and happiness. Last night was a stark reminder of a few things, but amongst it all, it’s that these ol’ dogs still have a few tricks up our sleeves.
God bless y’all!
