Krystal Campbell’s injury has the family business teetering on the edge of extinction. In back-to-back episodes of American Hoggers we watched as Jerry wondered if it would survive.
During the American Hoggers episode “New Recruit” viewers were told a very sad tale of a family that doesn’t know how to go outside itself to find help when it is needed.
In “Ranger Come Home” we also learned that without lead dog Ranger, there is no business.
The Ronnie Creek hog hunting crew is slowly taking Jerry Campbell’s customers away, pouncing while he’s down one member of his team.
The problem in finding a temporary replacement for Krystal is that no one understands how to recruit and doesn’t have the time to do it right. Read: Krystal almost lost a thumb in a contest to earn business.
With pressure from the Creek team, Robert asked a friend to fill in for his sister during the episode “New Recruit”. It was an unmitigated disaster.
The young lady pressed into service was reluctant to get right in and grab the hog after the dogs held it at bay. Hogs kept slipping away and you know how that pisses off everyone.
She also got sick from the heat, the sight of a bloody and dirty hog and the expectation that she would know what to do.
It didn’t help that Krystal was a witch, hurling insults at her and pointing out every error.
To finish the job they had and find the big hog that would net the Campbells $500, Lea took a shot at finding someone via an ad on the Internet.
Another young woman showed up professing to be an expert hunter, just not of hogs. She also wasn’t an adept horseback rider and was thrown to the ground, hitting her head.
Neither of the fill-ins were strong enough to hold a hog and tie it without a lot of help.
The nature of the business is that if there is none to be had, you have to manage on your own.
Robert correctly pointed out that any newbie was “gonna have big shoes to fill” because of little sister Krystal’s skills.
What really put the job in jeopardy was Ranger going missing. Jerry opened up about his inability to start all over training a new lead dog and its pack. It wouldn’t be in time to save his current business.
Over the decades of hog hunting Jerry has trained multiple packs and now has no energy left to do it again.
He said he’d rather be buried next to Ranger if they found him dead. Luckily that didn’t happen.
Jerry admitted he’s physically unable to help out and with Krystal on the sidelines, leaving only Robert and Lea as hale and hardy. The Creek team is lurking and ready to take over that part of Texas.
What’s a hogger to do?
