The Cowboy

The Cougar

The cougar gathered her strength and persevered softly padding through the deep darkness as cover. She stopped but only for a moment to sniff the air and put Her nose to the ground, opened Her mouth slightly, and curved her tongue making it flush with the mouth to scent any competition she might have to deal with. When curiosity was heightened and conscience was clear she got on with the hunt licking Her whiskers into position understanding how they would move, tremble, and fold forward when Her kill was first bitten into. She was getting closer and could feel Her senses beginning to heighten as She saw the cow from a distance behind. She pushed Her head to the ground and moved into what most of us know as those who know cats the common crouch position. Her ears flitted back ready for action the tip of Her tail flited this and that way not with domestication but as wild as the wilderness around Her and the blood that flowed within Her. She moved with the stealth that all cats carried themselves with. Soundlessly She hid behind a stump with a long-gone rotting toppled tree. Now the cougar's eyes dilated to focus on Her prey calculative plus mapping Her quickest route to take it down. Now the cow quit walking because Shela had found some grass where mostly pine needles choking out any undergrowth a little grass had managed to poke through. The baby birds and the parents singing a tune like nothing could go wrong in this world the wilderness could never be tamed. Next Her course of action was to tense Her haunches and the other muscles capable of powerful blows and razor-sharp as needles. The claws were as damaging as a velociraptor but the dinosaurs had long since slept. And maybe that is why we now have national forests and wildlife preserves. Then She bounded in the shape of an arc just like in movies and the climax happened as soon as the Cougar bit into the prey witnessing Her very demise.

 The cougar's bloodthirsty mouth opened in slow motion the pine needles scattering as the cat's back pads took flight the body forming a perfect arc like the old curved bridges in old Parkes. She had been primed right as soon as the eyes sighted the pray now in Her prime element of the jump as time sped up claws sunk tips first into the warm fur-covered skin. Mouth met neck as teeth sunk into the jugular the warm color of red fills the cat's mouth all the while using all Her one hundred and five pounds leaning in to hold down the baby cow. By now the Shela cow was squealing and struggling for life but the loss of blood flow was too great flowing through both cracks of the mouth of the cougar crawling down to the nape of the neck. Then the final movement was Shela's neck hitting the floor silence filtered through the very voice of a trilling bird. In a high tree, a crow squawked and then fell silent again. And so the kill had been made, life in nature isn't all cuddles and hugs there is the cute side then there is the predatorial carnage way, it's just another way of life. In life in the human world, violence doesn't solve problems. But in nature, there always is a hierarchy, and the more weight the more speed the more punctures and slices in the predatory side of things it's not meant to be pretty it's pure carnage at its highest form. Now that the cat's highest form of action had run its course, She tore into the catch and curbed some of her appetite. She then dragged the meat over to a broad tree the largest in the woods. First She pawed at the ground and made a large dent in the needles and fresh-turned dirt color of black campfire soot long after the coals died out. The cat positioned Her prey onto the shallow groove of the ground and then used Her front paws and started to cover the carcass a low rumbling came from some large bushes to the side, the bush quaked and a medium-sized bear crashed out almost close enough to touch the Cat.

The Cougar was unsure of Herself so within Her uncertainty, She pulled back flicked Her ears, and used a feral scream to protect Her kill. The bear lumbered from off to the side away from the cougar then lunged after the Cougar but the Cougar was ready for the bear and lifted the right most dominant paw batting at the air screaming again warning the bear that nothing would go down without a fight. The bear circled to the back to a vantage point all the while the rain had stopped before the fight and the sunrise was beginning to peak forth above the crust of the earth. The bear took a swipe but missed because the cat was as swift as the waves on the ocean and faced the bear the bear getting angrier by the second felt like a revolver aiming but not able to shoot because of nothing in the chamber all the while knowing her two cubs were hungry at home. The bear was about to give up but took one more swipe hoping she could quit this game of cat and mouse. The cat growled in response as she took after the bear this time and made a vital effort to chase the bear away. She limped back to the half-buried cache wondering if it was even worth covering. Because the scent of the kill would drift forever, she decided to cover it anyway just in case she was lucky. By now the sun was further in the sky and the gravity of death had pulled down the fight's commotion signaling the birds' melodies to chirp to a new day.  The Cougar walked away and stopped to take one last look at the cache ears perked up wondering if there would be anything left for her baby, then left.