One
I was enjoying the sort of nap that, as a dog, I had long ago mastered: sprawled out on sparse grasses, my nose filled with the fresh smell of trees, ears barely registering the small noises of birds and other rustlings. Sleeping outside near my boy, Lucas, his scent giving me an overall sense of his presence, is one of the most wonderful things to do on a lazy afternoon after a walk in the mountains. I was drifting on well-being, happy to be alive.
Lucas shared my contentment; I could tell by his relaxed breathing. He was sitting drowsily in the sun with his dog and his Olivia.
So I was startled when all of a sudden, tension jolted him. I instantly popped open my eyes and lifted my head, blinking away the sleep.
“Nobody move,” he urged. I glanced over at him, but then turned my full attention to what I could suddenly smell: a cat, female, a big one, somewhere close, lurking in the bushes. The feral odor was unmistakable.
For a moment I thought it might be a very particular mountain cat, one I knew as well as any animal I had ever met or smelled, but I quickly realized that no, this was a stranger, a new intruder.
She wasn’t moving, so I didn’t spy her at first. Then she shifted slightly, and I saw her. She was stocky and powerful and larger than the cats who lived in the house down the street, almost bigger than any cat I had ever seen. Her head would easily reach my back. She was spotted, with alert ears held high and a rabbit dangling from her mouth. I could smell the rabbit as strongly as the wild cat.
So, no, this wasn’t any animal I knew, though she did bring to mind a mountain cat that was much larger than this one.
The cat and I locked eyes, frozen. Lucas and Olivia were both motionless and tense, but not afraid. “Do you see it?” Lucas asked in the barest of whispers.
Olivia stirred. “I’ve only seen one other bobcat in my whole life. This is so cool!”
Lucas nodded ever so slightly. “It’s beautiful.”
I was still staring at the cat and the cat was still staring at me. It was the type of moment I often share with squirrels, when we’re both immobile, right before one of us bolts and the chase is on.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to chase this particular animal, though.
“I’m going to reach for my phone,” Lucas murmured. “Get some video of this. Bella, no barks.”
I did not understand why my boy would tell me No Barks when I wasn’t barking, or making any noise at all. I noticed his hand creeping ever so slowly, but it was movement enough to remind the big cat that she had other things to do than just stare at two people and their wonderful dog. With motion as quiet as Lucas’s whisper, she turned and was quickly in the bushes and gone, though her powerful smell lingered long after she vanished.
If I were going to give chase, now would be my moment. But I did not want the cat, or her rabbit. I had not yet been fed dinner, and did not want to be off in the woods pursuing wild creatures when it was presented.
“Amazing, that was amazing,” Olivia enthused.
“I’ve never seen one before. Wow,” Lucas agreed. “You know, I used to camp all the time and I never came across anything but elk. But with you we’ve seen bears, that eagle, a mountain lion, and now we can add a bobcat to the list.”
“You’re saying I’m good luck.”
Lucas grinned at her. “I’m saying that now that I’m with you, maybe I notice more of what’s good about life.”
“That’s sweet.”
I wagged.
“Why do you suppose it came so close to our campsite?” Olivia asked. “What does it mean?”
“Mean? What, like a sign, or an omen? A message from the cat gods? I don’t think it needs to mean anything. It was just a wild animal checking us out.”
Olivia shrugged. “It’s just pretty unusual behavior for a felid. Humans are really their only natural enemy.”
“Felid!” Lucas howled. He crawled across the grass to Olivia and pulled her onto her back, laughing at her. “What the heck is a felid?”
Olivia was smiling up at him. “It’s just a name for a wild cat. I was showing off that I know some words that my brainy doctor husband doesn’t know. And it is almost an omen to see a bobcat sneaking up on people instead of the other way around, don’t you think?”
“Maybe it wasn’t stalking us at all; maybe it wanted to get a look at Bella. Our canid.”
I wagged at my name.
“Canid! My husband is so smart.”
“My wife is so smart. So, okay, what else about bobcats?”
“I know they’re territorial, like mountain lions. If a female is in her territory, she’s queen and nobody messes with her. But if she accidentally wanders into another female’s range, it’s open season. She goes from predator to prey. Sort of what would happen if some nurse tried to flirt with handsome Dr. Lucas Ray.”
Lucas laughed. “I still don’t think Felid the Cat was an omen.”
I had the sense that they were talking about the cat and the rabbit, but I didn’t feel motivated to pursue it into the trees. My place now was with my people, my Lucas and Olivia. We lived together in a house with a room to sleep in, a room to eat in, and a room where all the food was kept, called “kitchen.” Sometimes I would lie on the floor of the food room, just to drink in the wonderful smells.
I never know why, but on occasion Lucas packs things into a car he calls “the Jeep” and drives us up into the mountains. On those nights we sleep in a single, soft-sided room Lucas and Olivia would temporarily erect near the vehicle. That’s what we were doing now.
Not long after the wild cat ran off with her kill, Lucas opened some packets and made dinner, an action I found to be a very positive development.
Copyright © 2021 by W. Bruce Cameron
