“Hey! Here, dog, here, doggie!” another called. His face was hairy, reminding me of my friend Ty.
There was a slight scraping sound above me and I knew Big Kitten had anxiously tightened her grip on a tree limb.
The men came to a ragged end of their run, walking slowly, two with hands on their hips as they breathed loudly. I regarded their approach warily. I had spent a lot of effort evading contact with humans and now an entire group of them were walking my way. Big Kitten would be afraid of them, even if they had food.
But they were people, and I was involuntarily wagging as I anticipated their hands on my fur.
“Look! Look in the tree, the tree!” the man in the bright shirt shouted excitedly. He raised his hand and stuck a single finger in the air.
“Is it a bobcat?” the man with the hair face asked.
“No, that’s a cougar, a young cougar!”
Another man took out his phone and held it in front of his nose. I heard Big Kitten move and looked up into the branches. Her eyes were large and her ears flat as she watched the men.
I knew a scared kitty when I saw one. Some cats are afraid of humans and will try to run when they are close, and these were near enough now that if one of them had a ball he could throw it to me. “Are you getting it?” the man in the bright shirt asked.
“I’m getting it!” replied the man with the phone against his nose. I did not understand what they were doing, but they were still approaching, though much more slowly, all of them watching Big Kitten.
“God, it’s beautiful,” the man with the hairy face breathed.
“I’ve never seen one. Have you ever seen one? I’ve never seen one in the wild.”
“It’s scared.”
Big Kitten’s dread was so pronounced it made the very air feel tense. Her muscles knotted beneath her fur, and then suddenly she sprang from the tree and seemed to be flying. She landed almost silently on the top of the rock wall and was instantly gone, darting up the hill and behind boulders.
Big Kitten! I ran to the rocks, but I could not climb the barrier; it was far too steep. I was reminded of Mother Cat streaking away from Lucas, and thought that Big Kitten was probably going someplace to hide.
“Man! That was amazing!” the man in the bright shirt shouted.
“Here, girl, are you hurt? You okay?” asked another man, this one wearing a soft cap on his head. He was closest to me, his hand extended in a friendly fashion.
For a moment I was torn. My life with Big Kitten had introduced a wildness into me, and the lure of her scent almost caused me to break away and try to catch up to her. But I heard the kindness in the cap-man’s voice. When his hand was within reach, I licked it, tasting some fish oil and dirt on his palm.
“She’s friendly.”
The man fed me treats: small pieces of meat from a packet. I did Sit to keep the process going.
“What are you doing way out here, girl?” the man with Ty’s hairy face asked as he scratched my ears. I leaned into him, closing my eyes.
“I think someone was hunting cougar, and this is one of the dogs.”
“Is that legal?”
“Hell no, it’s not legal. They’re endangered. But some sickos will pay big money for one. They stuff it and put it in their libraries and brag about killing it, or they just want the paws or the teeth or something.”
“So the dog treed the cat? One dog?”
“It looked to be a pretty young cougar.”
“And then the coyotes showed up.”
“Exactly.”
“They would have killed this poor dog.”
“I know. I’m glad you said we should check out the barking.”
“I could just tell from the sound that she was distressed.”
“What’s your name, girl, huh?”
I wagged as the man with the bright shirt patted my head.
“You want to wait, see if the guy shows up to claim his dog?”
The men looked at each other for a long moment. I could smell treats in their sacks and hoped they were talking about feeding me more.
“I don’t know, I can’t imagine a poacher being too happy to see us, even if we did save his dog.”
“Somebody hunting cougar, they’re going to be armed.”
“That’s not legal, either, is it?”
“I don’t think so. Not here.”
“Something tells me this guy doesn’t really care about that.”
“Great. What if some asshole with a gun is pissed off at us for scaring off his trophy?”
I went over and sniffed pointedly at one of the sacks on the ground, reminding the men that there were snacks inside that could be shared with a good dog. I did Sit again, being good, to help them make their decision.
“So what do we do about the dog? We just let her go?”
“You want to come with us, girl?” The cap-man reached into his pack and dug out another treat.
“Maybe we should call this whole thing off.”
“You want to head back to San Luis pass? There was that couple camping there. Safety in numbers.”
“Not really.”
“Let’s just go.”
“What about the dog?”
“Let’s see if she follows us.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
“Then she’ll go find her owner.”
“I think we should turn the guy in.”
“Okay, sure, we see him, you can make a citizen’s arrest.”
“She sure looks hungry.”
“You want to give her one of those tuna pouches?”
“Yeah, I do.”
The man with the bright shirt knelt by his sack and I gave him my full attention. He pulled out a small wrapper that opened with a slight noise and filled the air with a delicious fragrance of oily fish, the same aroma I’d smelled on Cap-man’s fingers. He placed chunks of fish on a rock for me and I gobbled them up quickly, licking the oil from my lips when I was finished.
“How far to highway one forty-nine, you think?” the man with the hairy face asked.
“Maybe ten miles yet.”
“We better get humping, then.”
The men picked up their sacks and put them on their backs, which suggested to me there would be no more fish. Humans are wonderful and can always find food, but sometimes they discontinue dinner before a good dog is ready to stop eating.
They did not put me on a leash or call me, but the way they looked at me suggested they wanted me to follow. I got in line behind them, and soon we were back on a path. The men, though, were walking in the wrong direction, away from where I needed to go. Away from Lucas.
*
I was torn. I needed to do Go Home. But that fish tasted astoundingly good.
We crossed a small stream, and as we did so the air currents skimming the surface of the water brought me the scent of Big Kitten. The men did not react, but people often do not seem to know when something fragrant is nearby, and will walk past some of the most amazing odors without pause. That is why everyone should have a dog with them, because we don’t miss such things, and when we are on the leash we can halt the walk to enjoy whatever it is that needs attention.