Blue Bagheera Tracking

11/18/2025

I’ve just got to tell this story. It’s too good not to share. Tracking deer can be dangerous, obviously- sometimes they are gonna choose fight. It’s happened to me numerous times and as Jinx gets older it has become even more of a worry in the back of my mind. That definitely played a part in how today went down.
I used to be one of the biggest hunters I know. You probably dont know this but I’ve got a 163” buck, turkey and coyote- (not mention lots of does) all with my bow. That takes some precision, time and skill to accomplish. When I started tracking I almost completely quit hunting, it was more fun to work my dog and help other hunters recover their trophies. This year I decided I would try to get back into hunting.
It didn’t go so well. It was so hard to sit still, so BORING.
My man and I took some time off to hunt last week and I was the biggest whiner with the worst attitude bc I “didn’t see anything shootable or it wasnt in range”. I was such a BRAT!!! I was rude and ungrateful bc i just wanted a deer for my dog and granddaughter to track…Fast forward to Sunday morning. I was freezing cold, I was in agony- my fingers and toes were dead. I text Ron that I was heading in at like 7:30, I was soooo OVER it. I leave everything in the blind except my rifle which I strapped on my back and headed out.
I was probably a quarter of a mile in when a buck to my right ran in front of me, stopped in the woods and stared at me before running off with another deer that I hadn’t previously noticed. As I’m standing there with my hands in my pockets I hear a loud STOMP, look up and there’s a massive buck 30 yards in front of me. My living nightmare. I’m being challenged by this giant. There’s no cover, I’m in the middle of the trail, he is gonna hit me before I can take two steps- things are clicking in my mind. I don’t really have a panic button, it’s odd but I don’t panic in the moment but I don’t reason either.
So this buck is stomping at me and takes a step toward me. I froze, pulled my gun around and just stand still. He starts to turn away but changed his mind. Another stomp, another step towards me when the thought enters my mind to take this deer, he’s mature, I’m hunting and he’s challenging me. I dropped to one knee and shot.
I immediately call Ron. “I shot a big buck” Ron knows I’m not going to chance a shot while walking in, that’s not controlled enough for me- I’m a cautious hunter. Everything starts settling in on me as to what just happened and I half cry “he SCARED ME” (more whining lol) He says he’s on his way and I decide to head back towards him. I don’t walk up to the deer, I’m still feeling uneasy and as I look up the road at him I see this LITTLE deer. Like I don’t even see antlers!!! It’s my mind seeing whatever it is seeing… usually you see BIGGER but for some reason i was seeing a scrub buck—- I start laughing hysterically as I walk back to the SXS and go get Ron. I’m still laughing when I get to him and tell him how in my mind this was a huge buck thinking to kill me -but it was really just a little guy. I dont shoot antlers. I shoot big bodies. I only shoot big mature bucks but somehow I had just harvested myself a tiny.
🤷🏻‍♀️
AS we pull up Ron’s like what the HELL??!! Oh-This is a giant! (See photo of him hanging) Which puts me back into “he was trying to KILL Me!!!!” After the fact I realized that he was probably coming around the bend to fight that buck that just ran off and encountered me instead- if I had yelled he most probably would’ve bolted off but due to my previous experiences and fear of this exact thing happening- I chose violence. lol but really.
Anyway- Ron says let me take a photo then we will set a fake track for Jinx and go get her to have some fun. He hands me my phone and it’s not until I’m looking at the photo that I’m like …”OMG, WHAT??? I’m just omg, omg, (more drama) I throw my phone down like a hot potato and run over to my deer. Rons yelling WHAT??? Whats wrong because im literally losing it…DROP TINE!! What the what??!! Like this is my ultimate!! ULTIMATE

Anyway, Ron had shot a great deer the evening before but that smile in the photos is because after nine years he finally got his hunting buddy back. That morning was definitely the excitement I needed and I’m now looking forward to bow hunting again next week!! Jinx was thrilled to chew on a few deer this weekend too!! Thank you God for giving me exactly what I needed, exactly in the way I needed it. I had so much FUN!
As always thank you to Brianna Love and Ian Love for the hospitality! Especially Ian for helping load these two brutes out of there.

11/16/2025

Am I still tracking? Constant question.
Barely.

There are several factors but primarily -My business is flourishing to the point that I have very little free time. That’s a VERY good thing since I love my job. I’m still getting a little bit of time in the woods with Jinx here and there but we are only taking tracks for friends and family AND hunters that we have a relationship with. AND Any female hunters, always here for the gurls.
Pictured below is one of the multitude of reasons we are slowing down (grandbabies)😍 she really loves seeing this old tracking dog work- I’m blessed with the most beautiful family and I don’t want to miss out on life with them.

Don’t come for me bc she’s not wearing orange. This was a deer we knew was dead, had already been standing over it, pulled right up to it, she was surrounded by adults in orange in the middle of a private property - she wasnt hunting but wanted to “see Jinx track”.

PS I’ve got about a dozen good trackers within an hour of me. Text me if you need help and I’ll get ya with one of my buddies.

09/21/2025

3 hours of forest time this morning but no deer. That’s how it goes half the time but we did get to spend time with the nicest folks and no time in the woods is ever wasted.

09/20/2025

She’s ready! We will be at Busch Wildlife tomorrow morning. If you make a questionable shot tonight or tomorrow please give us a shout and we will try to fit you in after we finish this one. We will have Mark from Sublime Tracking with us as well.

08/25/2025

08/23/2025

We went back and ran that test line at the 18 hour mark. 2 hooves, 3oz blood, 400 yards in a matter of minutes!. It sometimes STILL blows me away these dogs abilities. Jinx is such a good girl, unbeatable work ethic and just so much LOVE for the game! This shows her STARTING process- she gotta sit and wait for her release then I gotta stand there and wait for her commitment.

08/22/2025

Job well done to James and Faline on crushing their UBT1 test in NINE MINUTES! Faline is a family member’s dog and will work for an outfitter in Kansas this season. She came to James timid and skittish but you wouldn’t know it by the way she confidently took charge of this line. He’s done an excellent job of building confidence and discipline in to this pup and I really look forward to following her progress.

Huge gratitude to Mark Maniaci for laying a beautiful line and assisting in evaluating this team- well done all the way around.

08/18/2025

I’ve shifted very far away from my tracking community to focus more on my business and my beautiful family but man I’ve met some of the best folks and made some of the BEST Friends I could ever ask for. Shout out to two of my gal pals that are so so so the biggest cheerleaders Marissa Rosentreter and Melissa Jared Harrelson- both the FURTHEST thing from a pick me girl. They lift up every single person they come into contact with- without ever begging for attention or spotlighting themselves. This video hit me in the feels and made me think of yall! Thanks for being you!!

08/14/2025

“God sent her when I didn’t even know i needed her.” Our story, part one.

As the season approaches i thought I would start the story from the beginning of this journey.

I think I started tracking in the usual way, lost a trophy deer that devastated me. This was 13 years ago and tracking was newly legal in the state and dogs just weren’t available in my area. Fast forward a couple of seasons when my husband wounded a doe that we knew was going to expire but couldn’t find. 3 weeks later while out hiking I found her. She had backtracked and huddled in. We had walked past her several times but couldn’t see her. Something snapped with that and i resolved to take steps to do something about it.

I immediately went inside and started researching tracking breeds. I told Ron that I wanted to get a tracking dog, he was like go for it. Two of my girls had just moved to TX and I had met a Blue Lacy there, I was completely enamored and when I saw they were tracking dogs it was a done deal. In the meantime we unexpectedly got a beagle pup so she was my first test subject lol. (Shes a bang up little tracker also actually but doesnt get much work)

I connected with a breeder in TX, Johnathon Wright, he had a litter on the way and even though the wait was hard I was ecstatic! She was imprinted on deer at birth and was exposed to deer scent and then trailing immediately. She had a fantastic foundation! I have videos and photos of her since she was born and i absolutely knew what I was getting- a gritty little HELL CAT! (I’ll plop a video of her in the comments).

I drove the 15 hours to Houston to pick her up and it was love at first sight! I was absolutely smitten and spoiled her rotten -and almost completely ruined her being so ignorant at the time on proper training of a high drive working dog. Jinx was a respite from life, from the fact that I had just experienced a huge loss and was about to go through another as my dad was suffering and getting closer to the end. My kids were grown and either in their PHD, Masters or undergrad with the baby in high school. She became my emotional tether and changed the course of my life, changed me. Maybe even Saved Me in a way. God sent her when i didnt even know that i needed her.

We trained every day. I was obsessed!!! Obsessed with tracking, training, Jinx- she went everywhere with me, even to work. I had no tracking mentor, knew no other trackers so it was just me, a book on training tracking dogs by John Jeaneneny and any videos I could find AND any hunter that would let us come out- and word got out pretty quickly that she was here to help. By the time she was three months old she was pretty much training me, she was a MACHINE and I introduced her to man trailing just to change it up and challenge her. She was so enthusiastic and FAST, I got hurt a lot in those early seasons bc of her mini freighter activities in the beginning, thankfully we slowed down around year 5 but you would be surprised at the strength in 43lbs of pure muscle.

When that first season started she was only 7 months old but we had trained so hard and she had such incredible grit and drive that we were having a ton of success with our oldest recovery being at something like that 44 hour mark. I was hooked! I went from being an avid hunter that bagged a half dozen animals a season to willingly (hell, eagerly) leaving the stand to go track a deer. The high of recovery was my drug and I was addicted. Literally Im serious here, it was the most fun Ive ever had. I dont think i can even put into words how it feels to have your dog turn and look at you and you KNOW, just know shes saying “ i messed this up, we need to go back, can you help me” or that shes saying “hey, that scent isnt here, i can keep going but we aint finding this deer” OR even “dude we about to come up on this deer ALIVE and its about to get JIGGY”. You are so tuned in that it’s no longer actual reads but just the energy between the two of you. It’s incredible, indescribable.

Early on we discover a FB page for Missouri Trackers and joined that. Wow did THAT really open a whole new world for me! But that’s part two. Stay tuned.

08/11/2025

Sean McCrory- my friends at Missouri Blood Trackers Association made this video and check out which deer was featured first… can’t wait to see what you harvest this year (kinda hoping for a less than perfect shot lol) just over a month and Jinx is ready roll.

07/25/2025

This kids trying to steal my dog.
She loves helping do drills with Jinx and has started promoting herself to friends “call me and Jinx to track your deer”. 😂
We used to worry about how Jinx would react to the kids, we are cautious of course but Jinky absolutely adores her girls.

07/11/2025

I was organizing my tracking photos and came across this screenshot. I love that Jinx is a big part of so many hunts. Not sure how many seasons we have left but if you need us OR just want to see her work before we retire… give us a call this season. My famous magic dog would love to be a part of your deer season (314) 941-0027

This track was 8/10 mile on a velvet doe. Hot day and a Great memory!