I know hunting isn't everybody's thing. But for responsible outdoorsmen and women, the kill is only part of the whole experience. It's also about getting away from the cul-de-sac you live on and being part of the circle of life.
That's especially true with turkey hunting. The turkey hunter has to stay hidden, know how the birds are behaving in an area, and, using various types of caller, yelp like a hen to try to draw in a gobbler. When the gobbler arrives, he puffs out his feathers and blows up loud and proud and struts back and forth in one of the coolest displays an outdoors enthusiast gets to witness.
See, he's showing that he's really excited by hearing that hen's yelp.
The thing is, a gobbler isn't the only dude in the woods who's excited by a hen's yelp.
Claude Strother is a seasoned turkey hunter from Selma. He's hunted in 17 states and Mexico. And he has it in his blood enough that, at age 82, still on chemo from stage 4 lung cancer, he was out by himself in Wilcox County hunkered down between a couple small trees, reports AL.com's William Thornton.
He went to yelping. Which got a bobcat's attention.
And before Strother knew what hit the back of his head, he had fangs in the back of his neck and claws in his forehead.
Fortunately, the cat immediately figured out he was on bigger game than he could handle and high-tailed it.
Said Strother, who was treated by a physician: “Everybody wanted to know, did you kill him? I wouldn’t shoot a bobcat for a thousand dollars. They were here long before we were, and he wasn’t trying to do anything but trying to get a meal. They’re beautiful animals.”
The great sportsman John Eubanks would be proud.
