Forget the crazy cat lady, we are the crazy dog people!

I never knew jumping in on this hound hunting journey we’d be where we are today. 

About a month before we got married Dustin got his first hound and started hunting with some buddies at work. Now I’d like to say the rest is history right here, but not so fast! 

I was the pregnant 19 year old wife at home and he wanted to be on that mountain every weekend…. Perhaps that should have told me something about how fun I may have been to be around, but I wasn’t looking in at myself just yet. 

It caused a lot of problems for the first several years until one day we had Jack! When that boy was old enough to think for himself, it was all things hunting and hounds. 

I didn’t give it much thought and figured it would just be a guy thing, but then, the girls also got really interested and started joining them. They would go more often than Jack because they were older, but eventually Jack decided NO MORE. 

Dustin started by taking him coyote hunting a few times and he’d come home to tell me how this kid “morphs into a new being!” I didn’t quite believe it, but one day went out with them and I kid you not, I’ve never seen a three year old that could sit so still and not say a word for hours….. He even peed his pants twice one night because he didn’t want to move. 

After about a season of the girls joining their dad on the mountain + Jack begging to go, I decided to give it a shot. Now this is about 12 years of me being stubborn and a lot of personal development later that I opened my mind to a life that could be. 

So, we headed off on a journey to “Inspire Families to Brave the Mountains Together” and here we are nearly two years in and we have all found our place in the hills and on Instagram as @thehuntingfam and @coldstrike.gear. 

For Dustin, he absolutely loves to see the dogs work. To see them chase down a track and tree that bear at the end of the race makes him proud. 

For me, I love to be with the family and document our journey. This is the space that Dustin’s passion and mine collide to create what I feel to be magic. 

When you leave at the end of a long weekend and everyone feels refreshed, you know you’re winning at something. 

The kids love camping and the dogs. I’m sure they’ll all find their different reasons eventually, but for right now, they love the mountains and they love to have cool stories to tell their friends at school. 

To be honest, I’d like to say I don’t know how we came from one dog to ten, but there were a few ways Dustin found a way to be sneaky about it over the years. 

First off, we did get a new puppy with each kid! I was ok with that because I thought that it would leave us with a max of five, but one day there was a knock on the front door around Christmastime and we opened it to find a box on the porch. 

You better believe that if you’re thinking puppy you are right! In that Huggies diaper box with a bow on top, there was a puppy inside. Now, after thinking about all the people with kids in diapers that could have possibly dropped that off, our neighbor crossed my mind. 

Sure enough I was right and it was he and Dustin that concocted a plan they knew I wouldn't say no to!

I’m sure that all you Houndsmen out there know all the sneaky ways you may have found to get yet another dog without your other half having an option, but if not, you’re welcome! 

Now you too can become the crazy dog people with us! 

See ya on the mountain! 

The ColdStrike Fam