Cookoo Charlie's Animal Alphabet - Mountain Lion - Originally titled Ghost Cat in the Hood

Mountain Lion

It was a warm, early evening on the California Peninsula. Police officers had closed off a residential street in Redwood City. Fish and Game personnel positioned themselves in and around a driveway of interest.

These days not only are salmon fighting their way upstream, they are fighting fort heir very survival. Once their population was so abundant, you could've walked on their backs pretending to be Jesus Christ on the water. Once the ghost cat stalked under lush canopies of America's vast rainforests. Today humans have encroached so far into the puma's habitat, swallowing it up for their own wants and needs, that the mountain lion is being pushed into residential neighborhoods.

The frightened feline nervously paced back and forth in the driveway. Behind her was a six-foot driveway and the freedom of the mountain; in front of her was parked a Jeep Cherokee and, ironically, a '68 Mercury cougar, and armed men waiting for the order to put her down. another statistic in America's murderous onslaught against unwanted wildlife.

A Fish and Game officer turned towards one of his men. the young man had his rifle shouldered with his sights on the imperiled cat.

"Nice and steady, Lamar," stated the officer.

"I got this," Lamarr responded.

As Lamar's finger caressed the trigger, seconds away from permanently silencing the mountain screamer's cries, I popped into the death squad scene, like X-Men's Nightcrawler, right behind the wildlife executioner. With a wicked smile of satisfaction, I ripped Lamar's head off and tossed it high into the air.

"Hedy," I said.

I dashed towards the big cat. As I reached out to grab her, she raked her claws across my chest, opening it up. I scooped up the panther and together we… vanished.

Lamar's head heeded the earth's gravitational pull and plummeted down, where his supervisor's hands waited to catch it.

"Fuck," said the officer. And dropped the head on the street.

This story stems from an actual event that happened while we were living in Redwood City. Annually, millions of animals are murdered by Fish and Game/Wildlife Management officers. It's a virtual war that public isn't aware of.

i chose to give this tale a happy ending where Cookoo Charlie saves the cat.