This past summer we took the eight year old grand-daughter to a remote 50 acre cow pasture for a weekend of dry-camping. Having heard Coyotes or wolves in the night on a previous trip, I took a varment call to possibly call them up for a closer look and get some extra night entertainment.
I had explained how the predator call worked by blowing uneven deep breaths while cupping the end on and off to make it sound like a dying rabbit. She had been practicing and had it down pretty good.
That night we stepped out into the pitch black surroundings and felt around until we found the chairs--not wanting to use the flashlight to scare anything off that might be in the area. After scooting her chair practically in my lap, she decided we needed to be a little more elevated. I said, "well, we can get in the truck and roll the windows down and call them from there". This sounded better, until we got in the truck and rolled down the windows. "How tall do these things get?", she asked. Finally, I said, "I'll tell you what, we will climb up the ladder and get on top of the trailer and call them from there". This sounded like the best suggestion yet, so after stumbling around in the dark finding the ladder, up we went with the caller, flashlight and one scepticle 7 year old.
After positioning ourselves and getting acclimated to the pitch dark, she proceeded to blow away on the varment caller. After about 5 or 10 minutes of the off and on blowing, she just knew she heard something below us and thought it was time to scan with the flashlight. To be honest, what followed even caught me by surprise.
The beam of the flashlight turned the pitch black night into 50 or 60 huge, shinny eyeballs staring up at us from below. I never heard a kid scream like that in all my life. She threw the flashlight off the trailer and put a death grip around my neck with her arms while shaking like a jackhammer.
What had happened is, during the time that we came outside and the time we finally finished blowing the call, about 25 or 30 curious cows had quitely slipped up below and surrounded our position. I finally had to climb down and get another flashlight and show her the cows to help convence her.
I don't know if that kid will ever go outside a trailer after dark again.
Papaw
I had explained how the predator call worked by blowing uneven deep breaths while cupping the end on and off to make it sound like a dying rabbit. She had been practicing and had it down pretty good.
That night we stepped out into the pitch black surroundings and felt around until we found the chairs--not wanting to use the flashlight to scare anything off that might be in the area. After scooting her chair practically in my lap, she decided we needed to be a little more elevated. I said, "well, we can get in the truck and roll the windows down and call them from there". This sounded better, until we got in the truck and rolled down the windows. "How tall do these things get?", she asked. Finally, I said, "I'll tell you what, we will climb up the ladder and get on top of the trailer and call them from there". This sounded like the best suggestion yet, so after stumbling around in the dark finding the ladder, up we went with the caller, flashlight and one scepticle 7 year old.
After positioning ourselves and getting acclimated to the pitch dark, she proceeded to blow away on the varment caller. After about 5 or 10 minutes of the off and on blowing, she just knew she heard something below us and thought it was time to scan with the flashlight. To be honest, what followed even caught me by surprise.
The beam of the flashlight turned the pitch black night into 50 or 60 huge, shinny eyeballs staring up at us from below. I never heard a kid scream like that in all my life. She threw the flashlight off the trailer and put a death grip around my neck with her arms while shaking like a jackhammer.
What had happened is, during the time that we came outside and the time we finally finished blowing the call, about 25 or 30 curious cows had quitely slipped up below and surrounded our position. I finally had to climb down and get another flashlight and show her the cows to help convence her.
I don't know if that kid will ever go outside a trailer after dark again.
Papaw