UPDATED 12/18: (see below)
I've thought about writing this. And as more time went by, and more adrenaline left my body, I realized how funny it all was. But I still didn't want to without a pic. We got one. Now, the other night, Arlis barges in the house screaming to keep Marcus in the house and runs out with a gun. This wasn't the first time something like this has happened, but this was the first time I heard an urgency in his voice that made me concerned.
Flashback:
Arlis (remember now, he's blind), sitting on a tractor and sees what he believes is a calf in the lower field, only the cattle were in the upper field. "What is that?"
Dad, near his truck and able to see better, but not the best "That's a boar!"
Arlis jumps off the tractor and RUNS to the truck. They drive to the house and the preceding events took place.
After all this, I find out it's a boar, and I hear "RIEEEEEEEEH!" from near the chicken house. It was a pretty awakening sound. Only problem was, that was a good 100 yards or more from the boar they were going after. (We never saw a second one, and the chickens were unscathed). Arlis shoots the 30-06 at the boar, only to miss and barge back in "Of all times to only have one bullet in the gun!" So Barney loaded up, I grabbed the 9 mil and we headed back out.
There it was, as big as a young calf, just staring at us like we were in the cage at the zoo. (I had to edit the photo as it was blurry b/c it was starting to get dark)
Now, boars are deadly (one usually bleeds to death from the damage, and children are killed before they have the chance to bleed to death). They are also invincible. They have shields on their foreheads and shoulders that have actually been known to deflect bullets. Go ahead, look it up, I'll wait.....
Told you....
Now, Arlis grabs my gun and hands his to dad (I never get any of the fun) and as usual out of 15 bullets, only 1 or 2 hit, and they weren't from the rifle. He just stood there and looked at us, never moved. I know one hit b/c he finally moved and started running like something was biting his bum. The next day they traversed the fence line and never saw a trace of blood. Told you, invincible.
We called the neighbor, who hunts, and now he's determined to get him. Hope he doesn't come back!
UPDATE: So, we get a call from a friend just yesterday who hasn't called in several months. Anyway, we tell him about the boar, and he tells us that there's a hunting lodge past our woods (the direction the boar came from and went to) and that they set boars loose periodically to hunt them. Sounds beyond stupid to me, but at least we know where he came from. So then, I put an ad out for our turkeys today, and this guy calls to buy them. He owns that lodge and said they had 2-3 get loose that day, and the one we shot at was later killed by hunters out for deer that day. So odd that we had two people call us so close together with this info. So we called the neighbor who was VERY relieved to hear it's dead. In fact, Arlis left his gun in the house today when we went out to work following the phone call, so it's put a lot of minds to rest!
We heard some pops after it went into the woods, and although dad and Arlis believed it to be boar directed, I thought nothing of it b/c we hear gunshots all the time around here. I guess it really was aimed at the boar-how coincidental! The slaughterhouses around here apparently call the guy with the lodge when they get one of his b/c his are tagged. I'll be honest, I didn't see a tag. It could be a chip, or fallen off-who knows? TOO WEIRD!!
