Week 10 Story: The Mountain Lion Cub

               

mountain Lion By Wikipedia 

                There was once a couple who live in the mountains. They lived in a log cabin midway up a mountain. There was a general store about ten miles from where they lived. The would go there to get basic essential such as spices and tools. The way they got their food is the husband would go hunting. Once a week and bring home a dear, bear, or several small animals.

                One day while out hunting the husband killed a mountain lion that was particularly aggressive. After killing it he notices why. It was protecting a single cub. Knowing he had already killed one thing that day he did not have the heart to kill another, so he decided to take the mountain lion cub back to his wife. When she saw it, she was so happy and decided to adopt and raise it as her own.

                The cub started out so small and was easy to raise at first but after a while it started to grow. When she first had the cub, it would play with paper towel tubes but after a while it became to big. So, she got it scratching post but after a while it became to big and destroyed it. So, she made the now full-sized lion play with the trees outside. She would scratch and tear at the trees, but they were old, big and sturdy, so o could not destroy them.

                After a while the husband ask the wife if he could take it hunting for it would be a great companion. The wife agreed. After taking the mountain lion one time they realized how good of a hunter she was. So, to make use of it the husband would constantly take her hunting with him. Finally, after a while the mountain lion would go out and hunt on it own and bring back food to the couple.

                They lived happily with their lioness companion for a while. It all changed one day when it came home with a body. The husband immediately recognized the body was of the general store. He went to investigated what had happened. When he was down there he figured out the store owner had seen the mountain lion and tried to kill it. He could tell the lion only killed him in self-defense. He went back home and explained this to his wife and they sat down and discussed a decision.

They decided to report the store owner as missing and they needed to let go of the mountain lion. So, they did just this. The decided to put a collar on the lion with a blank tag in hopes people would leave it alone. The couple drove deep into the woods, so that they let the lion go away from civilization. They cried as they told it to leave but the lion understood and ran off into the woods.

                To this day people who travel deep into the wood will say they see a mountain lion with a collar, but it will not attack them for some reason. The husband and wife never saw the mountain lion again though.

 Authors notes: the original story “The Woman Who had a Bear as a Foster-Son” was about an eskimo woman who fostered a bear cub that grew up and would hunt with the men. I changed the people from eskimos and the cub to a bear but kept the story similar. Her bear brought a dead man who challenged to kill the bear and she decided to let it go after that. In my story the lion killed the store owner and brought them home. The eskimo let he bear go in the end and I did the same with my story.

Bibliography: The Woman Who had a Bear as a Foster-Son by Knud Rasmussen