Live and Let LiveOur good friend Todd Edwards and his friend and business associate Dave Copeland came to stay with us a few years ago. They were hunting for cougars in the foothills around where we live. They followed Paul Pierunek’s hounds for several days and were amazed to see these well trained animals do their jobs. Several different cats were treed by the hounds and hunters and then released as they were not what the boys wanted to shoot. At one point they had a mother cougar and her half grown kittens treed but they let them go after taking their pictures. It is a well known fact that one of the biggest threats to a young cougar is an old male cougar. They often attack and kill the little ones and the females are often injured in their efforts to defend the kittens. Trophy hunters are looking for the largest, mature males. Hounds don’t know this so they follow their noses to the bottom of any tree with a cat in it. The excitement of the chase is not diminished by letting the females with kittens go. True sportsmen enjoy the chase and working with the hounds as much as the potential to get a great trophy cat. Each evening they came in with stories of their day and Todd asked me to create a bronze depicting the hounds and the cats. He had previously been hunting in Saskatchewan and picked up a pair of Mule Deer sheds. In our area, Mule Deer are the main diet of the cougars so we included his shed antlers as the trees in which the cats have taken refuge. Our story unfolds as the hounds tree the cat family, and wait impatiently for the hunters to catch up. The story has a happy ending for the cougar family as the hounds and hunters go off in search of other game and they get to come down out of the tree. Dave gets full credit for coming up with the name for the piece. “Live and Let Live” talks about hunting, conservation and respect for these magnificent predators. If you look closely, you can see Mick, Paul’s hound, standing in a cougar track. The female cougar is also resting in a Mule Deer track washing her whiskers and planning the evening hunt. Todd and his brother Brian later killed a 180 lb. male cougar nearby that had an eartag marking him as an animal that had been trapped and transported from the outskirts of Calgary to a wilderness area approximately 65 miles from where he was caught. Limited edition /20 25 inches high |
