By Fred Stabbert III
CALLICOON — November 28, 2003 – Hortonville’s Harry Fisher, a teller of tales and inventor of nicknames, has a new hunting story to tell, namely “Tommy and the Two Bears.”
Fisher, immediate past president of the Tamarack Farm Deer Club, Inc. in Callicoon, says this story is almost unbelievable…but true.
It all started on Sunday when Harry’s oldest son, Tom, shot an 8-point roebuck while hunting with the club. Deciding the trophy was worth mounting, Tom carefully caped the deer to get it ready to take to Callicoon Taxidermist Rod Smith.
But when Tom walked out of the Tamarack hunting cabin on Monday morning, he couldn’t find hide nor hair nor even horn of his trophy.
Undaunted, Tom decided he would look down an old wood road near his camp to see if an animal had possibly stolen his deer.
Sure enough, he got his answer when he came face to face with a black bear. But Tom had one problem. He had no gun.
So he ran back to the cabin, fetched his gun and proceeded to slay the bear. Hearing the commotion, many other club members soon arrived and set upon hunting for Tom’s trophy buck.
To their surprise, another bear ran out, and Al Muscara took aim and bagged the bear.
It’s a true story…bearly.