I'm writing this on a sad day in February.  It is February 4, 2011.  Eleven years ago, almost to the day, my wife and I purchased Outlaw Razor Red from Alton and Theresa Key.

                It all started in October in Wisconsin on a moonlit night during their kill season.  Katina and I and our daughter Kadie went to the Key's house to buy a puppy from them out of an all Grand male.  I visited with over 30 of their dogs while Alton was finishing up chores. 

                When he was finished, I told him that I really liked two specific dogs out of over 30.  One was NITECH 'PR' Key's Outlaw Red Pearl, and my favorite was the now famous Outlaw Razor Red.  I really took a liking to him and didn't know anything about him yet.  That night, we went hide hunting and we took Razor along with a couple of young dogs.  Razor treed 11 coon in less than 2 hours.  The smallest coon was 22 pounds. 

                It was so easy for Razor to run and tree coon in style- the right way.  Razor was usually a 2nd strike dog but way ahead of the other dogs on track.  Razor was, for sure, a first tree dog against any breed.  I can only remember a couple of times that he had to take second tree.  Razor ran track with a squal mouth and occasional chop mixed in on a real hot track.  Razor ran to catch on any type of track in any weather and in any terrain.

                Razor had a loud yodel locate that you could tree him on half way through it.  Don't worry- he would not go anywhere after he threw his locate.  He took any kind of pressure on the tree- even fang pressure.  He would never leave and never fight back.  He didn't even know they were biting him because all he cared about was that coon up in that tree.  He had a real loud ringing chop on the tree,  up on the wood in style, and about 90 barks per minute that you could hear forever.

                When we got home from Wisconsin, I could not quit talking about that Razor dog.  I drove my wife nuts every day.  We finally got him bought in the first of February 2000.  The night I got him home, I couldn't wait- I took him hunting.  This was against my practice of waiting two weeks before hunting a new dog.  But Razor was different.  That night he treed a den tree in the woods I put him and I saw the coon in that den.  I, then, sent him down a fence row to another patch of woods.  He slammed on the brakes, threw his head in the air and winded a coon about half way down the fence row and set down treed every breath.  I gave him that coon.

                Razor didn't miss many coon in the woods.  He treed a lot of coon that other dogs didn't know were there.  He decreased the coon population around here.  I killed 181 coon to him the first year, 125 coon the second, and 94 coon the third.  Now I'm killing about 60-75 coon/year.  He was a very accurate tree dog.

                Razor really thrived in competition.  He loved to get first tree.  I didn't buy him for competition; I bought him for a coon dog.  But he was too good for people not to know about.

                I put him in three World hunt qualifiers (in three different registries) in March that first year.  He won all three hunts and was qualified for UKC, AKC, and ACHA world hunts.

                He always stayed consistent.  He very rarely would draw minus points.  After that (qualifying for the worlds), I let Alton hunt him in four PKC hunts and Razor won all four.  Razor won ten straight casts in different registries for Alton.

                I got him back home just in time to enter him into National Redbone Days in Pomeroy, Ohio.  Razor was flawless.  Three straight cast wins with all first tree plus points with zero minus points the whole weekend.  He was the only dog to win three casts that year and he was crowned Overall Hunt winner at National Redbone days in 2001.

                I went on to win eleven straight casts with Razor in big hunts.  A lot of those hunts were Purina Hunts.  Razor won in many different states:  Texas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, etc.  I never hunted Razor in my local clubs.  He was not a local dog. 

                Razor won 23 cast wins out of 28 that year.  Four of the five casts did not have a cast winner (circle points only).  Razor ended up winning the Purina Race that year for our breed.  He placed 6th place over all breeds and he didn't even get started into the Purina race until July that year when he won National Days & then had a double cast win at Plott Days in August.  It just didn't get too hot or too cold for him to tree a coon. 

                Razor is truly that Dog of a Lifetime that you hear about.  One of the most important traits of all is his reproducing ability.  To have hunting ability and reproducing ability both is truly a blessing.  Razor was our current #1 reproducer for a long time and stayed on the current list for years until he finally rolled off due to his age of 13.  He also naturally sired a litter at 13.

                Razor is currently the #2 Historical Reproducer.  He has many offspring with wins towards Nite Champion and Grand Nite Champion.  We also have many frozen breedings of semen put up on him so you will see and hunt with Razor pups for many many years to come.

                I really appreciate those of you who hunt Razor pups.  I, also, appreciate the redbone breeders that help put this fine line of dogs together in Razor's pedigree.  To name a few:  Mike Marcum, Travis Thomas, Ether Smith, Bob Henning, Larry Turpin, Veechal Coffee, Terry Hayes, and to all of those that I am forgetting in this time of sorrow. 

                I put my old dog Razor Red to rest today, under a tree, where he was happiest.  There will never be one to fill the void that I feel in my heart.  But I will continue on with Razor blood heading up my kennel here at Tree Rizin' Redbones.  A special thanks to my wife and kids, that I have worn out in this craze of coonhunting. 

Thanks for reading,

Rob Childers

In Loving Memory of:  UKC GRNITECH GRCH AKC CCH NITECH 'PR' Key's Outlaw Razor Red DNA-P