Yep. Cats and dogs just seem to naturally go together there. LOL.
I've never been on or with him on one of his leopard with dogs hunts. He has shown me videos of them. Some of them sere seriously up close and personal!! Once he showed me several years ago was before hunting was closed in Bots. They were in bakkie that had an open type cab. Driver and dog handler in the front seats and the client and Gerhard in the high seats behind, with the guy taking the video standing behind the client over his shoulder.
The hounds had a cat bayed up in some very thick thorn bushes off the left front corner of the bakkie. When the cat broke from cover, it came up over the front fender, got a claw into the shoulder of the driver as it was heading straight for the client. Luckily, the client was able to get a shot off with the 12ga held kind of at the half ready with the muzzle on the chest of the cat. Cat was still able to rake the clients left forearm a bit as the shot when off. Gerhard said EVERYONE had to change their pants after that!!
He also showed me the video of the cat they had just taken before I arrived. Cat was up in a bit of a cave that was maybe 40m from the truck. Dogs all around the mouth of the cave. When the cat broke cover, it came out like a rocket past the dogs and straight at the bakkie. Client opened up with the rifle and Gerhard with the 12ga. Stopped it at maybe 5m from the truck. The speed that cat moved was unbelievable.
I understand that one advantage of using hounds is you may be able to be a bit more selective on the cat. If its a female or young tom, the dogs can be called off. However, even with dogs a cat is not guaranteed.
