[or-roots] Big Cats (from Aunt Charlotte's book)

[DAVIESW739 at aol.com]

Father was so pleased about it that he asked Mr. Edes if he would sell the  
dogs. Mr. Edes would do better than that, Father could have the dogs and  
welcome. He could have had most anything else that Mr. Edes owned, if he had  asked 
for it. We had them for a number of years.Our dog Conquer, looked all that  
his name implied. I do not know what kind of a dog he really was, but he was 
big  as big as a yearling bear, and quite as wooly.But Conquer was the biggest 
coward  that I ever saw, he could not have conquered a flea.One day Adam 
thought he  heard a grouse, Conquer probably thought it was a grouse himself, though 
I do  not see how either of them could have mistaken a grouse for anything 
else under  the sun or have mistaken anything else under the sun for a grouse.
 
  The first one I ever heard I thought must be the awakening of  the Seven 
Sleepers and I was always listening and fearing that I might hear  them.
 
  So when Adam and Conquer thought they heard a grouse they went  to find it. 
Adam, of course, took his gun. The Queer, hooting noise that ended  in a wail 
came nearer and nearer. That was not like a grouse at all, a grouse on  the 
wing does not howl, neither does it hoot and wail, whether it is on the wing  
or in the top of a big fir tree, where a hooting grouse should be.  Nearer  and 
nearer it came, Adam had just begun to feel that maybe it might not be a  
grouse after all, when a bloodcurdling scream came from an old log directly in  
front of him, part of the scream came from Conquer, part of it came from a huge 
 panther. Conquer had every reason to scream for the panther lit square on 
his  back, his claws tore his hide into strips and its fangs were buried to his  
skull. Conquer's size and his long, wooly coat were all that saved him, that 
and  his speed. Adam came to our house almost as fast as Conquer. He had only 
time to  see that our old dog was in trouble, dreadful trouble, when Adam came 
in panting  even harder than the dog and anyone at all could see that he was 
quite  scared.
 
  Father said: "Adam where is your your gun?" Adam Admitted that  he had it 
with him right there on the very spot where he had met the panther. He  even 
admitted, when questioned further, that the gun was still there, where he  had 
dropped it. Neither he nor Conquer, it seemed, had "stood upon the order of  
their going, and they had gone at once."Father was terribly provoked at Adam. He 
 took his rifle and went back to the place that Adam had described. there was 
 Adam's gun, exactly as he had said, there was the brush and ferns trampled 
and  beaten down, and panther tracks were there plain as anything, but the 
panther  itself was probably in the next township by that time, for Father hunted 
it a  long time and found no further trace of it. He told Adam he was a mighty 
hunter,  who dropped his gun to run like a scared cottontail from the first 
panther that  he met alone in the woods.
 
Walt  Davies
Cooper Hollow Farm
Monmouth, OR 97361
503 623-0460 

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