While at the sale in Mt. Home yesterday, I watched a fur buyer grading out some of Jack Kelly's coyotes. There were around 3 hundred or more coyotes at the sale. I mentioned to the buyer that Jack's coyotes looked real good and the buyer said they were the best at the sale. Jack tumbles the hides in a tumbler that he built for very little. Jack said he tumbles the hides leather out for 10 or so minutes and then tumbles them fur out for another 10 or so minutes. Jack's fur was very fluffy and looked fuller than the others. The buyer said they were pretty silky and soft compared to the others which the buyer said felt course and like the hair had fish hooks to it??? I've never heard that said about coyote fur before (the fish hook part). He got an average above $60 for his yotes though, so he did it right compared to the others. Last year I saw where some people had 20+ cats and this year had fewer than 10. We all seemed to agree that the cold weather was the biggest contributing factor to the reduced numbers. We all had cat sign (tracks and such) out on our lines from cats we didn't catch. If there is a good point about this, it would be that the on coming spring breeding population will be higher and possibly produce more cats for next season. On a side note, I noticed quite a few younger cats that were caught.