A Night By The Fire

It was the dead of winter in Mississippi (maybe down into the 30’s). I had decided I would take my dogs out to try to tree a coon. It was getting close to dark. My wife had made some chicken and dumplings, so I ate my fill and got ready to go. I love a good bowl of chicken and dumplings on a nice cold night. I decided to take Sunny and Jenny this night. Sunny is a 4-year-old redbone female, a nice little low end strike dog and a top end tree dog. She will gamble some but has her coon more times than not. Jenny is a 3-year-old redbone female, a top end strike dog and likes to check her tree more than Sunny. I loaded them in the dog box, and we were off to the woods. I turned onto the dirt road, got out the truck, collared up the dogs, and let them loose. I started to build my fire and about the time I got the first flame, Jenny let out her bark to tell the world she smelled the track of a coon. I got the fire going and heard Sunny join in. I was in luck. It was a coon they had jumped many times, so I got to sit and listen to a nice race. As I sat in my lawn chair by my nice little fire, I reflected on hunts of the past. I remember when I was training the same two dogs in the woods – all the aggravating nights of chasing them down as they ran a deer. I started to smile as I remembered the first coons they treed. It seemed like forever ago. They have treed many coons since then. The track seemed to be heating up when I heard those three long, distinct locates of Sunny before she settled into a nice chop. About the time she threw the last locate, Jenny settled in with her. I was thinking how lucky I am to own these two nice hounds. They might not be the best in the world, but I sure love them. I sat by my fire for a few more minutes before deciding it was time to put it out and head to the dogs. I made sure the fire was out and started walking toward the hounds. I stopped every so often just to listen to the hounds treeing. I finally arrived at the tree and began to shine. Not long after that, I found the coon laying across a limb at the top of the tree. Again, I stopped and admired the two dogs treeing. Then I leashed them up and headed back to the truck. Before leaving, I stared up at the sky, looked at where my fire had been, and thanked God for the night He blessed me with.