Emily:
After two days of freezing temperatures, getting up at 5 a.m., and hiking up mountains Jared finally got a mountain lion. This pride and joy measures 7 feet 2 inches and weights a whopping 150 pounds. Jared felt every pound as he help drag him down the mountain with his friends, Zane and Shawn. As his wife, this is all I really needed to know . . . he was absolutely stoked and drove it around town to 'appointments' showing it off. He attracted quite the crowd when he showed up at the HR building. Every employee coming or going or working in the building seemed to come out. It was quite the scene! The grand plan is to do a full body mount (I may have to mortgage some of my children) and show the mountain lion off, somewhere in my house. I have visions of my children seeing which one will be the first one to get a ride! We may have to dedicate a 'trophy' room (Monica shouldn't mind sharing with the boys!). All of us were really excited that dad finally got his lion!
Jared:
I finally caught a lion! On Wednesday I went hunting by myself in frigid 18 below temperatures, or so it felt. I came upon a track after 5 hours of searching - after following the track I found a deer kill that had been buried by a lion. I sent the dogs out but didn't have any luck. But me being the genius that I am, knew that the lion would return to eat his venison buffet. Thursday (which is today), we went to check to see if the deer had been disturbed. I had brushed out the tracks on Wednesday and the deer had been pulled out of the dirt and had been mostly eaten (the deer was a small two point - by the way). We found a fresh track and we let the dogs go on the track. After going over several ridges, we ended up on top of the Pequop Mountain at about 7,937 feet elevation (serious). After hyperventilating due to lack of oxygen we found the dogs and they had treed the lion - in a tree 15 feet tall. We watched the dogs for 45 minutes or so and we decided that it was time to end the life of the cat. It was a 3 to 1 vote - the cat's vote carrying the least amount of weight. The only good position to shoot the lion (cat) was directly underneath him, this presents a danger, because after shooting him, he could fall on me. My friends didn't seem too concerned about that thought. So I decided to take the shot. (Emily's opinion - What the heck was he thinking - what kind of friends let you shoot a lion 'hoping' that it won't fall on you - perhaps this is the most obvious reason I have absolutely no desire to participate in this amazing show of sportsmanship . . .) Jared continued . . . I loaded up my trusty Glock 45 and shot him. The bullet entered his check and went out through the back, by his spine, he fell a little bit and I shot him again, he fell a little bit more and I shot him again. Then he jumped out of the tree and ran about 100 yards down the hill and then dropped dead. The dogs malled him and pulled him down the hill about 100 more yards - I had to go tie a rope so they wouldn't take it any further down the hill. Then the hard work began. We had to pull it up about 250 yards up the hill (a very steep mountain), we thought it weighed 400 pounds. It took three grown men, two others that were must stronger than myself, to pull it up the hill in 5 yard increments. As we reached the summit we pushed him down the hill and rode him like a sled. It ended up weighing 150 pounds and was 7 foot 2 inches long. His paws were about 5 inches in diameter. Same size as my hand. It was a very good day.
Emily:
Does anyone else understand now, why I really don't want to hear what happens! Somethings are better left up to your own imagination - or lack of!
We hope you all enjoy the pictures. Jared has video to show the next time we are together. Be sure to bring your motion sickness medicine because you will be sick from watching!
