Rambling through central Illinois, wondering if snow is being replaced by fog in our weather pattern.• • •
While firearm deer season was not super-exciting for our crew, we did get a charge out of the Cat Rescue of 2025. On Nov. 11, our dog chased a black cat up a maple tree in the back yard. On Nov. 14, the cat was still in the tree, meowing pitifully.
While this did not cause me to lose sleep, other worried members of the family demanded action. One rescue attempt involved a blanket over the cat and an ill-fated grab that made the silly thing shimmy up a higher, less steady branch. There she sat for a cold, wet evening.
Finally, between hunts on opening day of shotgun deer season, my boys went into action. The middle boy got a pole saw, put on a tree-stand safety harness and climbed a ladder to cut the branch holding the cat. The youngest held the ladder. The oldest shot video.
The middle boy’s plan was for the branch to drop gently into a nearby oak, thereby slowing the rate of fall and letting the cat make it to the ground safely. Somehow, it all went off without a hitch. Truth be told, it was fun to watch. As an added bonus, without that branch, the oak should grow even better … and the cat likely won’t be as eager to return.
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Hate to admit this, but I watched an entire Hallmark Christmas movie last weekend. It took several sittings and plenty of bourbon, but I made it through “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story.” The experience left me curious.
Are all Hallmark Christmas movies this bad? Are we supposed to ignore the oak and maple trees with green leaves in the supposed snow scenes? How can everyone be so happy? And since when did real actors start doing Hallmark movies?
Bad as it was, I’ve got it on good authority that the Bills movie is way better than last year’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.” Even so, if not for ties to Buffalo, I would not watch three minutes of that schlock. When it comes to holiday movies, stick to the old favorites: “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special,” “Elf” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
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Speaking of holidays, this is a great week to count blessings. I’m thankful the youngest boy completed his football career with no major injuries and all-conference honors; that the middle boy is good at climbing trees; that the oldest boy has moved closer to home and shows up regularly; and that my wife still puts up with it all.
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Back in 1991, when major steps toward expansion of Illinois deer hunting began, shotgun season accounted for 81% of the whitetails harvested. Twenty years ago, shotgun hunters took 67% of the total. By last year they accounted for just 48%.
Bowhunters have picked up the slack, increasing from an 18% harvest rate in 1981 to 43% last year. Of those, crossbows now account for nearly 54% of the archery harvest, compared to 14% in 2015.
No wonder last weekend’s first shotgun season is no longer a big deal. My kids look at me with disbelief when talk turns to a barrage of shots on opening day. Nowadays, it’s easy to keep track of the few blasts we hear. At one farm the total on opening morning was 10. At the other it was 15.
Warm weather, fog and a lack of rut action contributed to a lack of action where we hunted. Another reason to give thanks, though, is the miserable weather in the forecast that should get deer moving.
Contact Jeff Lampe at (309) 231-6040 or jeff@wklypost.com.
