30 Hogs-A-Grazin’

by Kim Lewis

Between Greenville and Commerce Texas, along the South Sulpher River bottom, Greg Lewis and his friend Darin Kizer along with Elm Creek’s Creole and "Nasty Dawg" Patch, Two Diamond’s Famous Amos and Darin’s Black Mouth Cur named Jack set out to find some hogs on a drizzly weekend after a good hard rain. The men just knew that those hogs would be up on high ground because of the rain. So, they made a round of the hills in hopes of spotting some hogs and staying away from the snakes at the river bottom.

Finally, they gave up hope of finding hogs in the hills and decided to make their way toward the river bottom. As they were passing a freshly mown hay meadow the dogs spotted a herd of about 25-30 Russian hogs in the meadow grazing like cows. The dogs were off - dogs after the hogs and the men after the dogs.

The dogs chased the hogs into a cedar thicket and prevented them from reaching the river bottom. Meanwhile the men headed into the trees after the dogs. When they entered the thicket they saw so many hogs under so many different trees that the dogs were moving the hogs out from under the trees without baying or catching in what seemed to be a natural instinct for survival. The numbers were definately not in their favor. It was as if they knew that were they to catch hold of one they would invite disaster from the others. Darin shot two sows that the dogs had cut off from the group on the outskirts of the thicket - one was 70 pounds (32 kg) and the other was about 130 (59 kg). In the meantime Greg and Creole had flushed out a 250 pound (114 kg) boar. Greg shot him once at a distance of about 8 feet (2.5 meters) and saw the fur fly. But, the boar never changed directions or skipped a beat. After this, Greg and Darin decided to chain the dogs and get the heck out of there! We had barbecued hog ribs compliments of Greg, Darin, and four great dogs. Boy were they good!!