Tiny but Mighty Big Game Recovery

11/02/2026

Got a call this morning from Alicia. She had shot a buck the night before and had a great blood trail but it went dry after 600 yards. She wanted to know if Rascal could come help.

We arrive at the 18 hour mark and head out to last blood. Rascal ended up goofing off and not really tracking. I make the call to head to the hit sight and start from the very beginning.

Rascal pulls me down the bloodline and I'm looking at the blood spots. It's bright red and kinda sprayed and splattered everywhere. We get about 400 yards in and I cut Rascal loose. I had a feeling this might get interesting. She is tracking like a Rockstar and makes to last blood. She circled back to check in then back down the line she went. We get to last blood and she comes back to me and gives me the look. I've come to know this look as her asking permission to track a deer that wasn't dead. I gave her the command to continue and she takes off into a direction that had not been searched or walked on. I'm watching her on the Garmin and she is steady paced tracking. I tell the hunter we should go out onto the snow mobile trail as she is getting ready to cross it. As we are walking, I see Rascal is stopped and staying in one spot. We start hiking in that direction and I see her move a few yards then stop again. That's when my suspension was confirmed the deer wasn't dead yet. We pick up the pace and got within 80 yards and hear her barking and growling then crashing. We get in close and this deer pops his head up out of the tall grass. I get Alicia ready and lined up with her crossbow. The deer is barely able to stand but hobbled out just enough for a perfect kill shot. This is her biggest deer she had ever taken and is Rascal's new best friend. Congratulations on your UP buck.

11/01/2026

1-2 for tracks this weekend. Got a little before noon yesterday from a hunter that I had tracked for 2 years ago. He knew he hit guts so he backed out right away. I told him we should wait until morning but he was worried about wolves and coyotes. Against my better judgment I agreed to come out last night after we took the kids trick or treating.

I arrive and we hike into the hit sight. Rascal picks up the trail right away and shows me some blood spots. We get about 300 yards in and she shows another small spot of blood. I let Rascal off lead so she can get through some swampy mess when I hear the buck jump. And the race was on after that. With the deer and Rascal staying just ahead of us at 150-200 yards. We climbed through some horrible swamp, i managed to fall into a beaver slide and got completely soaked. We finally after what felt like miles but only was about 800 yards Rascal is stopped and barking. I see her collar light and aim my spot light towards her and seen the deer. He was staring at us. I held him in my spot light as the hunter tried to sneak up on him for a follow up shot. Unfortunately the buck was still lively enough he blew at the hunter and hobbled off before there was a chance for a follow up shot. I called Rascal off and called the track at that point. We weren't going to catch up to the deer. The hunter did agree he should have listened and waited until morning. After getting home at 230am, I pushed the next morning's track to the afternoon.

2nd track the hunter called last night said he had a clean pass through and dark red blood on the arrow. They tracked the deer 170 yards but the blood was drying up. I said i would come out today. After nursing my sore muscles from the night before, we get out to the hunting spot early afternoon. We are gearing up and he showed me the arrow. It was dark red blood and smelled like liver. We walked into the hit site and Rascal gets on the known blood line right away. She makes short work of where they already tracked. We hit last blood and i cut her loose to let her work through the grid search faster. She circled around for about 10 minutes before picking the line she liked. She lined out and we follow her lead. Less then 5 minutes later she is stopped. I knew she had the deer. We get in there and I see her white tail sticking up from the brush just a wagging. I pointed and told the hunter there is your buck. The pure joy of seeing him get his hands on his buck he was sure he lost, is what makes this business worth it. The hunter did tell me he was very impressed our team and without Rascal he would have never found this UP stud.

10/07/2026

Got a call late last night from a young hunter. He had arrowed a very nice bear but they lost blood after 300 yards and didn't know where to go from there. I told them that i wouldn't be able to get out there until after work today and they said they were willing to wait.

Rascal and I arrived at 20 hours post shot. Rascal picks up the trail quickly and makes her way down the blood line. We make it to last blood very quickly and she takes us another 150 yards and sits down. I look past her and there was the bear.

Congratulations to this young man and his first bear taken with his compound bow.

09/27/2026

Got a call this morning from Top of the line guide service that they had a big bear hit the night before and started loosing blood after 250 yards. They back out for the night to bring in Rascal for help.

We get there 16 hours post shot and get the full picture of what happened. Both me and the guide feel pretty confident that the bear should be dead with the way the shot was and the way the bear acted after the shot.

Rascal started out strong and made short work of the known bloodline. We push past last blood and making our way towards a cedar swamp. We find a couple smudges of blood and know we are on the right track. We push another 600 yards and Rascal starts behaving oddly. She would track for a bit then stop and look around before continuing. I let her go another couple hundred yards and she was acting all ansty. I look to the guide and was just about to tell him I think we should call the track, when we hear a gun shot just to the right of us. The hunter was about 50 yards away just out of sight and he hollers for the guide, followed by more shots. I grab Harvey and Ellie and shove them behind me and pull my pistol because I'm not sure what this hunter is shooting at as we are in heavy wolf and bear country. The guide takes off towards the shots and I hold my spot with the kids. A few more shots then nothing. I hear a yell that they were good. We make our way over to them and they were standing next to the hunter's bear. Rascal had been trying to tell me that the bear wasn't dead. It wasn't very far ahead of us and had made a loop and charged the hunter. Thankfully no one was hurt and the injured bear was put out of its misery.

Rascal got chicken nuggets for this track. Kids have some new stories to tell their classmates and teachers tomorrow at school.

09/26/2026

Rascal is back in action and hit the ground running this morning.

We got a call that the hunter and guide had good blood for about 100 yards then nothing. Shot was exactly where it needed to be but didn't know which direction to go after last blood.

I was able to take my kids along on the track as a learning experience. We arrive 15 hours post shot and get to work. Rascal picks up the scent right away and makes short work of the known blood line. We make it to last blood and I could tell she was debating with herself on which direction to go. She worked the scent and decided to go right which is the direction they had searched last night. After about 100 yards Rascal is goofing around and not really tracking so I knew she was off. We turn around and head back to the bait pile to try again. Rascal again trots down the known line and when we got to the same spot she confidently took a left turn instead. 60 yards past this fork she was standing over this 250 pound Michigan black bear.

Harvey and Ellie loved getting to experience their first bear recovery and getting to see how a bear is field dressed. This bear was the hunter's first bear in his life and he was so relieved and happy to be able to recover this bear. They wouldn't have found this bear without Rascal's nose.

09/15/2026

Thank you Mike for putting this list together!

I’ve received a lot of phone calls from all over the U.P. regarding bear and deer tracking and recovery services.

A lot of those calls end up being referred to another tracker who is closer to where the animal was hunted. At the end of the day, the goal is getting hunters connected with the right person and giving every recoverable animal the best opportunity to be found.

I put together this list of trackers throughout the region that I know and trust to provide ethical recovery opportunities while following the proper laws and etiquette that come with helping hunters recover their harvest.

Please save this list, share it, or print a copy for your camp or hunting party. You never know when you or another hunter might need one of these numbers.

Good luck this season, hunt ethically, and hopefully you never need to make the call—but if you do I hope this list helps.

- Mike

09/13/2026

Rascal is recovering very well from her incident with the bear. She is still on the injured/ reserve list for a bit longer yet even though she keeps telling me she wants to get back to work.

I am still available this weekend for any youth or liberty hunters. It will just be with the new pup Spice. She has been doing well with practice but needs to get a chance on a real world track. If hunters are willing to take a chance let us know.

09/10/2026

I know things have been quiet over the summer for the Tiny but Mighty crew. Here is the low down. Rascal got in a livestock accident the beginning of the summer which resulted in a dislocated hip. She had surgery to fix it and has been on 3 legs most of the summer as we did physical therapy. She is slowly regaining use and function in that leg. Only being on 3 legs has done very little to slow her down though.

Today was the opening day of bear season. We got the call this morning that the hunter had made a shot and lost blood after 75 yards. He backed out and gave us a call as he has used us in the past for a deer. I told him we could get out there in the afternoon.

We arrive at the 8 hour mark get all the paperwork complete and head out to the hit sight. Rascal was more then ready to get back to tracking. We start at the hit sight and after some checking she takes the line. She made short work of the known blood trail and past last blood within a couple minutes. We work our way slowly towards the more swampy area. As the brush got thicker I creep up on the lead so I'm only about 10 feet behind Rascal. I do this as a safety measure because you never know if the bear is dead or alive.

Today my worst fear happened, Rascal started barking and as soon as I go to pull her back (she only barks when the animal is still alive) she starts crying as the bear had grabbed a hold of her side. Hunter was on the ball and got up ahead of me and put the killing round into the bear, which then I was able to pull Rascal back to me. We backed out to a clear spot so I could check her over while the hunter and his son made sure the bear is deceased.

Rascal was taken to Sault Animal Hospital where Dr. Haley checked her out. She only had a few superficial punctures. Nothing was broken and no internal damage. She got 5 staples and some good pain meds.

It was not the way we planned on starting the season off but we made a hunter very happy. He said he had been putting in for points since 2009.

Rascal is on rest for at least 10 days as that is how long the staples need to be in.

05/06/2026

Big news, we have added a puppy in training for the season. This is Spice, she is a 4 month old Parson Russell Terrier, and this is her first introduction to a blood line. I dragged a chunk of liver about 50 yards and hung it just off the ground. She did fantastic with a couple puppy distractions. I can't wait to see how she progresses as we continue in her training.

01/16/2026

The season is over and winter has set in. It's below 0 and the terriers are soaking up all the heat they can get.

As I reflect on the 2025 season, we had a great season. We had 2 bear tracks, 1 recovered. 14 deer tracks with 5 recovered. We would have had done more tracks but I had a bunch of family emergencies this season. We are preparing for skijoring this winter and excited to get on the trail. I'll be posting pictures from the trail and races we participate in. Thank you to all the hunters and fans that support our tiny but mighty team.