Windows to the Soul
Part III


I could hear a truck rolling over the gravel road coming toward me with the sun well over the tops of the trees now, the frost that covered the ground had begun to give off clouds of steam. My heart began to beat a little faster as the truck grew closer and a sick lump built in the back of my throat with fear and anger as I knew that I would soon be face to face with a very powerful man of whom I wanted to question. I had dropped the tail gate on my truck and sat there swinging my legs off the back with my arms crossed over my chest. I still had on my hip boots with the tops rolled down. As the truck came into view I could see a lone driver behind the wheel and a 4 wheeler in the bed. Having never met Don, I guessed this had to be him. I could see the man was on a cell phone as he came to a stop to the left of my truck and trailer. I slid off the tail gate and made my way to the front of his truck as he ended his call. The door opened and a short, balding, middle aged man stepped out and shut the door. He was clean shaven and spoke with a confident voice.
“Mike?” he questioned with more of an announcement as he extended his hand to shake. “Don Black, it is good to meet you finally.”

“Same here” I replied as I extended my hand and shook his.

“I could tell on the phone earlier that you were shaken!” Don began.

“More like up set. Don, I am not one to spook easy as I have spent the better part of my life in the outdoors, night and day, and I am also not one to be fooled by nature. Don! I have seen the same 11 point buck now 7 times, and this morning there was three of them running together.” My voice was still a little shaky but the lump in my throat was gone. “I am not talking about similar deer here, I am talking about the exact same buck right down to the same broken G2 tine on the right side. They were standing still, less than ten feet from me and they did not appear to be happy to see me.”

“Question” Don asked, “Did Terry, tell you not to come out here in the dark?”

“Yes he did” I started to explain “Well, he told me not to come out here at night!”

“Okay, well he meant dark, not night,” Don stated with a show of disgust in his voice. “I guess he should have made that more clear.”

“There is something wrong with these bucks, I don’t know what it is, but there is something very wrong here.” I remarked. “I know one thing for sure, they don’t like sunlight.”

“Tell you what, I would like to run your traps with you today and we will talk about the deer you have seen” Don remarked “Will that be okay?”

“Yes sir it will, that sounds like a fine idea as I am already behind schedule” I said with a smile on my face.

I helped him off load his ATV and rolled up my hip boots. I was ready to go in a moment, although it took Don a few extra minutes to adorn layer after layer of heavy clothing. I wondered how he would move with that much clothing on, I guess some people don’t do as well in the cold as I do. Finally with an hour and a half delay to start the morning and one huge tom let go, I was on my way. As we drew near the first set, the orange flag was waving in the breeze, I could see the 7x7 tie wire stretched tight for the third time.

As we came to a stop, I remarked, “Three for three!”

Don laughed a little “You are piling them up that is for sure, I am glad you cut me such a deal!”

“How did you know I cut you a deal?” I questioned while I removed the beaver from the 330.

“I know a lot about you, I always check out anyone who comes on this property. I figure one of two things, either you wanted to make sure you got this job to catch all the other animals, or you cut the price because you knew there were large numbers of beaver out here.” Don explained. “This property is not just a fishing lease with monster bass in the lakes, but rather a research and development area. We manage large herds of deer, droves of turkeys and we have the hatchery for bass. We groom and shape nature to meet our client’s needs and for this reason, I have to know my clients and for that matter anyone on the property.”

“I see,” I replied as I threw the beaver on my ATV. “So how do you get three record book bucks to run together?” I questioned as I dropped my setting tongs in the box.

“We bring deer in from all over the country, breed them and release their off spring for trophy hunts.” Don remarked “We are trying to develop a trophy ranch here for duck, deer, turkey and bass. An all in one hunt is what we are trying to offer, ducks in the morning, fish at noon and take a trophy buck in the evening. Turkey hunts will be the same, hunt the birds in the morning, fish the rest of the day.”

I stopped and looked Don in the eye and told him “Don, I might have been born at night, but I was not born last night! There is no way you are breeding three deer that are now the same size, with the same rack and the same broken G2 on the same side. Those deer did not get in the same fight and break the tip off the same horn. Plus their eyes do not glow!”

Don smiled without showing his teeth, “You are very observant, most people would not notice that much about an animal. Where do you think they come from?”

“I think you are growing them in a lab somewhere!” I spouted out without thinking.

“Hum, have you told anyone what you have seen out here?” Don asked smugly.

I thought about what he was asking after the reply I had given and I slowly slid my hand to my hip and felt my Smith & Wesson now loaded with .22 long rifles. “No, I have not told anyone, I don’t think anyone would believe me if I did tell them, plus there is no one to tell.”

Don’s face glowed with a smile showing his dimples, “Don’t worry, I am unarmed! You can take your hand off your pistol.”

“You had me thinking, this may be a conversation that you would have to kill me if you told me.” I cracked a smile, removed my hand from the pistol and stepped onto my ATV.

We moved on down the levee running traps and removing more beaver and an otter. As we motored past the set where I had taken the female cat the first night, I could see there had been no more activity, so I never acknowledged its placement to Don. As we made our way to the top of the largest levee from the smaller pond, we came to the set I had made the first day near the deer carcass. There lay a huge tom almost the size of the one I had let go just a few hours before. His body was lifeless, the set was torn up. I stopped a few feet shy of the catch circle and proceeded to make sure the animal had expired. As I drew closer, there was no doubt about his death, there was blood every where and holes in his side and stomach area. He appeared to have been stabbed to death with something sharp and pointed. I looked at his left foot still in the trap, which revealed blood covering the paw.
“How in the world did his foot get so messed up? I use off set jaw to keep this from happening and this is a center pan catch.” I was stunned for a moment, until I thought about the wounds to his body.

Don spied the deer carcass below and asked as he made his way to it, “Is this why you put a trap here?”

“Yes, I did not see where any thing had eaten on her, but I figured if something got wind of that meal ready to eat, they would have to come see. Looks like this nice tom never made it to his last supper.” I began to check the hide to see if would be salvageable.

“Do you know what killed her?” Don asked about the doe.

“I was not for sure when I found her, after seeing the cat, I think I have a good idea” I said with a hint of anger.

“What do you think killed them?” Don asked in a low, almost in monotone voice.

I thought for a monument about what I was about to say, “I think those big rack bucks you are raising did this to both. I am not for sure how they managed to take the doe down and gored her because she was not restrained that I can see, unlike the tom. From the looks of his foot, they almost ripped him out of the trap.”

Don never raised his head to look my way, for he was intently looking at the decaying doe. This told me I had answered correctly and now I for the first time held real fear in my soul, as these were no longer trophy bred deer, but rather rogue animals killing at will.

Don made his way to the set, where I had already removed the tom and laid him to the side. I pulled up on the earth anchor and removed the trap with one swift motion, then tossed it in the box on the back of the ATV. As I turned to retrieve the tom, Don had him laid on his back, belly up, looking at the spots and holes gored in the animals chest area.

“Is the hide any good?” Don asked with real concern in voice.

“Nope,” I replied. “I will still dress him and put him up, but the docked price will not be worth the time I put in him. I am not going to waste him though, I am going to try and get some good out of him.”

“Have you ever had a cat killed like this before?”

“Never! I have taken a pile of cats in my life, I have never had a dead cat in a trap.” I replied as I searched my memory of all the cats I had taken over the years, and could not think of a time I have arrived to find a dead one in a foot hold trap. Conibears, yes, foot holds no.

“You know we thought about raising cats and fox for the fur industries. We could breed the perfect animal and offer the customer as many quality furs as he needed on demand.” Don spoke with pride of his ability to manipulate nature while changing the subject.

I put it short and sweet “I don’t like fur ranches, they put me out of business, let Mother Nature be and let people like me do our job.”

“You know there are a lot of people out there that want to put an end to the fur industry. There are also companies out there that are now making fake fur that looks just like the real thing.” Don spoke with knowledge on the subject.

“You know you are right, but, I would have to ask those people. Do you know who the first person was to use animal skins for clothing?” I responded with pride. “Do you?” I asked Don.

Don smiled with a glow showing his dimples again. “Yes I do! Now, can you tell me which book, chapter and verse it is found?”

I reeled with dismay in not knowing the exact chapter and verse. “Nope! I just know it is found in beginning of the book of Genesis.”

“Chapter 3 verse 21. Few people know this.” Don replied.

“Mike I have a proposition for you. If you’re interested, I think you are you are the man for the job.” Don paused as if waiting for me to jump in and say yes without knowing what the job was. “We bred these deer you have seen a while back and we raised them for trophies in the special area we call our private lease. There were 13 of them originally. Eight weeks ago in the peak of the rut, we released them out here in the general property with some special does that we knew had not been bred. We wanted to see if we could get a second generation with this perfect genetic make up for the trophy ranch. We are not for sure why or what is going on with them, but that doe makes 11 does and 4 bucks we have found gored to death since we released them. Oh, and a bobcat!” Don said as he motioned to the bobcat lying at his feet.

“These are just the ones we have found. We started trying to take the bucks out 4 weeks ago and have only been able to remove five so far. You have seen all 7 of the remaining bucks in just 4 days here. I would like for you to help me remove them. I will pay you per animal, by the hour or, what ever you think is fair.”

“So there is something genetically wrong with them?” I questioned.

“Yes, there is something wrong with them, we are not sure what though. For some reason they do not react with other animals well. You are also right about the light issue, for some reason they do not like the sun light. In fact when we had them in the small 5 acre pins, they would lay under shade trees all day with their eyes closed. They labored to breath also during the day. At night they would get up and walk around, taking the same path over and over till they wore a rut. They would also only eat at night.” Don began to come clean about his research.

“So why do you need me to help you remove them? All you have to do is ride these levees at night with a gun and shoot them. I saw four the first night out here. Also, isn’t it illegal to take deer out of season? Season ended two weeks ago when bow season went out.”

“I prefer to take them during the day light hours and no, this is a private ranch, we manage our own herd, it is perfectly legal to remove what animals we need to.” Don stated with a tone of concern.

“Well how did you take the five you have already taken?” I asked.

“We took them at night just as you recommended. But we don’t want to continue doing that.” Don replied.

“Why? I mean in one night we could take all 7 and be done with it. You pay me and I will do it tonight.”

“No! That is not an option.” Don remarked abruptly. “What I need you to do is to track them to where they are hold up during the day. You have already seen them close up, you know the area, and I feel you have the ability to guide me right to them during the day.”

“When do you want to do this?” I asked “It is taking me from sun up till 3pm on a short day to run the line and I need to roll it over this week and hit the north end hard for beaver.”

Don pulled out his pocket organizer and opened it. With a few tones and a few pecks with the stylist, he said “I can’t do it this week or next. That will have given you two full weeks of trapping during the day light hours. That next week I can start Monday morning at 9 am. Oh, and I will pay you $100 per animal for every 11 pt buck with a broken G2 tine on the right side that we take.”

“What if I see them again like I did this morning? Can I take them then?”

“Yes, and I will still pay you. I just need them removed, they have become a problem, just like the beaver.”

“Okay, I will do it. We have a long way to go today and I am already behind. I think we need to get a move on.” I said while I placed the large bloody tom in the box as I straddled the ATV.

Don sighed, “I really need to get back to the office. I only came out today because I knew something had gone terribly wrong this morning. I wanted to make sure you were okay and also to ask for your help in tracking these deer.”

“That will be fine, if I see one of those rogue deer, I will take him out.”

Don laughed and said “Shoot away, but I don’t want you out here looking for them by yourself and also I DO NOT want you out here at night looking for them. I mean that, don’t be out here till the sun is up and don’t stay out here when the sun goes down either.”

Don let me know with a stern face that he meant what he said. I smiled back and told him, “After what happened this morning, you don’t have to worry about that.” I cranked the Honda, put it in gear and told Don, “I will keep in touch.”

With a nod of his head, Don made a U turn and headed back toward the parking area.

I finished the day with good totals and another late night in the fur shed facing me. But, I did finish the run in the day light!
_________________________
If I have to explain it, you would not understand.