Sitka's Story

Black Cat and the Lethal Lawyer – an excerpt from the Novel

The story takes place in Texas, near the Mexican border. While the evil-doers create confusion and mayhem back at the ranch, embezzling and plotting murder, life goes on out on the prairie, where Sitka is raising her cubs. On a particular day….

Far from the ranch house, in the mountains to the east, Sitka, the mountain lion, lounged on a rocky overhang, watching her two kittens tumble and wrestle on the warm rocks. Their bright little eyes danced in new discovery as birds flew past the den and dragonflies flitted near the overhang. Their ears perked at every sound. A hawk flying overhead, calling; the snap of a bush where some small animal ventured; the wind rustling in the bushes below their den.

At a sudden sound, Sitka’s head swung to the left. The kittens stopped playing and stood rigidly at attention when the distant sound of a rumbling truck reached their ears, caught in the shifting wind blowing through the canyon below. Sitka scanned the canyon wall and half raised her body from the rock, alert and searching for anything that might threaten her family. Sensing their mother’s distress, the kittens moved as one, raced into the back of the den, and huddled together in fear. All that was visible from the front of the den were four little blue eyes nestled in a mass of spotted gold fur.
Sitka strained to listen.

The rumble of the truck grew fainter and then stopped. She vocalized a soft chirp and began to purr, telling her cubs that the perceived danger had passed and they were safe to resume their play. The cautious kittens crept slowly from the back of the den toward the bright sunshine. Within minutes, Sitka has resumed her position near the front of the rock and the kittens wrestled in mock battle once more. Sitka lazily switched her tail. The male kitten, spying a new game, left his sister on the rock and jumped at his mother’s switching tail, batting it from side to side, imagining it to be some sort of elusive beast.

In the canyon below Sitka’s den, the driver stepped out of the truck and quietly shut his door. The man in the truck had been advised to keep his voice low, lest their activities should be discovered. They began to unload the cargo in silence...

Sitka crouched on an overhanging rock formation on the southern canyon wall. A white tailed deer fed unsuspectingly 20 feet beyond her. Silvery-gray fur on the lion’s head blended into lighter patches around her jaws and glistened in the afternoon sun. All 90 pounds of her feline body tensed, ready to leap. She flexed her five front claws and drew them up again in readiness. She had stalked the white tailed deer, waiting for the exact moment when it would be within striking distance. The deer paused to graze on an outcropping of dry grass. Sitka gathered her legs beneath her powerful body and sprinted the last 20 feet across the rock, leaping onto the deer’s back. With one powerful chomp, she broke its neck and bore it to the ground. Sitka seized her kill by the throat and dragged it to a nearby pile of shrubs where she fed on the meat. She then scratched grass and brush over the body to camouflage it from other predators. Over the next two or three days, she would return often to feed until she had eaten the whole carcass.

In a nearby rocky alcove, two three-month-old cubs peered across the plains, watching anxiously for their mother’s return. The alcove provided a measure of protection from the hot sun and chilly nights. Instinctively, they knew not to leave its safety. In a few weeks, Sitka would lead them to the kill site to begin to feed on meat, but today, they were still completely dependent on their mother’s milk. The kits were startled from sleep when she jumped onto the rock. Sitka lay down, sleepy and satiated from her recent meal. She groomed the kittens, tumbling them vigorously around the enclosure. They kneaded gently on her tawny belly to hasten the life sustaining milk. Sitka closed her golden eyes and nodded. The slight rumbling of a truck in the distance brought her to wakefulness. Sitka scanned the plains but nothing moved within her view. She listened again for the sound. All was silence, except for the cry of a hawk flying high overhead. She closed her eyes and slept.