By: Bud Alexis
I enjoy bow hunting. So, a friend and I on one of our bow hunting trips decided that if we did not get any deer, that we would stay after dark and try to call up a coyote. After locating a suitable tree, using a tree climbing stand that I made, I climbed about fifteen feet up into the tree. My friend went to another location about a half mile away. I saw nothing that evening and soon it became very dark. There was no moon out. I listened to all the night sounds hoping to hear the sound of coyotes.
With my head light on my head but not turned on, I was prepared for anything approaching my stand. To call a coyote, I would make the sound of a rabbit in distress by holding the back of my hand to my mouth and making a loud nervous type of kissing sound. The high pitched sound usually was effective in calling up prey.
I tried the call for five or so minutes when suddenly something grabbed my extended elbow, and started beating me in the face. I let out a blood curdling yell, which my partner heard a half mile away, and I almost fell out of the tree. I felt scared out of my wits. Whatever it was that grabbed me was so startled by the yell that it turned loose of my arm. My heart was racing, and it was all I could do to stay on my perch fifteen feet up in the tree with no safety belt.
It was so dark I could not see my hand in front of my face, and the thought that whatever it was might still be around, made me quite nervous. Shaking badly, I reached up and turned on my headlight and started a slow search around me through the limbs of the tree. There it was, just a few feet from me…a huge screech owl. The owl heard the sound and was coming for a free meal. It was its claws that sunk into my arms and its wings that were beating me in the face. It was quite an experience.
Just as suddenly as the unexpected visit from the owl was to me, the Bible says that suddenly the trump of God will sound and those who are not prepared to meet God will be left. Are you prepared for the “suddenly” when it happens? Think about it.
