Josh Baslee can tell you what the inside of a doghouse is like, and not because he's a nuisance animal control expert.
The 39-year-old from Osawatomie, Kan., has been living in one for months, ducking the nails in the roof, ever since he tagged the buck his wife, Sandy, wanted to shoot.
"I don't know if my first name is Josh anymore," he said, not breaking a smile. "It might be an expletive now."
Sandy claimed dibs on the buck, which was the largest of four good ones photographed by their trail cameras, because she was the first to see it. Josh brought home the memory cards that day, and she was scrolling through the photos while he was in another room.
"I heard her say ‘OH MY GOD,' really loud, and I went to see for myself," he said. "It was huge."
They retrieved more than 20 nighttime photographs of this buck and his brethren from a pair of trail cams over a two-week period.
The couple decided to wait for a north wind before hunting the buck. When the forecast was favorable for the afternoon of Nov. 5, they planned to share a plywood box blind. Sandy would take her crossbow.
They both dressed and readied their gear, but Sandy got only as far as their front porch before an asthma attack caused her to change her mind. She urged Josh to go without her, however, because the wind was perfect for the blind.
Plus, she knew the rut was about to start. Bucks were beginning to show an interest in does.
"Just don't shoot MY buck," she warned.
And of course he did. There was no handwringing. No inner turmoil. He just aimed and released.
"It came all the way to within 8 yards," he said. "EIGHT!"
The Miami County 22-pointer is the new runner-up to the Kansas state crossbow record. Its BTR composite score is 216 inches.