I just attended a family reunion a few weeks ago and one night we sat around a campfire and were swaping family stories and there was one told that I thought you all might enjoy.
My great-uncle owned a huge ranch in northern Arizona. He had 27 sestions of mountain land and 14 sections of bottom land and raised a vast amounrt of cattle which they would take up in the mountains during the summer to graze and then just before winter came the hired hands and my Uncle would drive the cattle down to the bottom where they would be able to feed them easier . When they brought them down they would always , no matter how hard they tried not to , let a few stray off. After they got the herd down to the bottom of the mountain and settled down , my Uncle and a few of the hands would ride back up into the mountains to try and gather as many strays as they could and bring them down.
There was this one year , I believe someone said 1934, when they almost waited too long to bring them down. Fortunately they were able to get the main herd down before the first blast of snow hit the mountain. Huriiedly my Uncle and some of his hands went back up the slopes after the strays. They would seperate after getting pretty far up the slope and each would go out and bring back as many strays as they could to a certain point on the slope so they could drive them on down the mountain.
Well , my Uncle rode up this one canyon that seemed like it would just go on and on . He found no strays but he did find a deer trail that led to another canyon and he decided to go there even though the skies were looking heavier and heavier. He got about half way between the two canyons in some rather rough terrain consisting of underbrush so thick he could hardly ride is horse through it when suddenly one of those famous Arizona blizzards hit with such force and throwing so much snow down on him that in a matter of minutes he could not see the trail in front of him. Being that there were some dangerous
gulleys and slick slopes my Uncle knew immeadiately he was in trouble . He got off the horse and let it wander over to a stand of thick gathering of pines to
get out of the brunt of the screaming winds. He had grabbed his bedroll and that was all and anxiously looked around for any kind of shelter from the deadly blizzard. After making his way through some of the dense underbrush
he was fortunate to spy a small opening in the side of the mountain. My Uncle was elated because now he could escape the howling winds and heavy snow and wouls be able to wait it out until either the storm let up or some of the hands would find him. When he got to the hole in the mountain he looked around and finally found a long dead branch from an Aspen and took it and poked it inside the hole hoping to run out any varmits like coyotes, or rattlers that might be inside. When nothing moved or ran out Uncle smiled at his good luck and crawled inside the opening that was just large enough for his body to squeeze through. Inside It was dark and my Uncle closed his eyes so he could get them
use to the dim vision and when he opened them and got adjusted to the dark cave he noticed that the cave was much larger inside than it looked from the outside. He let his eyes wander slowly arond the cave still looking for inhabitants. Seeing none he opened up his bed roll and sat on it and leaned up against a boulder that bulged into the cave from the mountain, and took out some Bull Durham makings and made himself a smoke. He reached into his shirt pocket and took out and small box of matches he always carried with him and lit the cigaret and was just taking the first puff when sudden ly there was a short grunt followed by a yawning growl that made my Uncle almost wet his jeans. His heart started pounding a mile a minute because he had heard that sound before and it was not a fond memory. He did have the persence of mind not to jump up and run or make any kind of sudden move. He looked around the cave again this time his eyes were more intense and sweat beaded up on his forehead as he slowly shifted his body so to be able to bring the vision in full circle. There was nothing . Then slowly almost agonizingly he raised his head and then he spotted it. Laying on top of the boulder he had been lying up against was the biggest Mountain lion he had ever seen. He gasp outloud when he saw it and his raspy sound made the Cat jump to his feet and then down on the ground unfortunately , the ground he jumped down on was between my Uncle and the opening of the cave.
The cat just stood there looking at my Uncle , not moving anything but an occasional swish of his tail. My Uncle said nothing . He had no weapon to defend himself , he had no way out, My Uncle truly thought it was his time to die and his only thought for a split secound was if he were killed nobody would no where he was and he would have simply disappeared. A sick feeling knotted his stomach as he thought about his forty some odd years that would be for absolutely nothing. Then the cat walked over to him . My uncle fell down his back again against the boulder . Tears of fear and remorse filled his eyes and suddenly the cat was right at his face. Again it gave out a yawning wail and then of al; things it layed down on my Uncles legs . My Uncle gasp again as the Lion layed across his legs . He waited for the sudden terror of a deadle swipe by the cats large paws ---------but there were none. the animal just layed there and after looking for a long time at my Uncle it layed his head down and closed its eyes. My Uncle was still shaking inside but stayed perfectly still and the cat just lay there.
Well My Uncle was in that cave two days and the story he told the hands that finally found him was that the big cat never harmed him or even attempted to bother him the whole two days. He said he even finally got enough courage up to pet the cat and he said all it did when he petted it was groan and swish its tail as if to thank him. He left the cat in the cave at about noon the secound day and his horse was still in the grove of trees whwere he had left him.
Well now, thats the story. Is it true ? Shoot , I don't know , but my Uncle was never one to spin tall tails . Oh , yeah , when they ask him why he thought the cat didn't attack him he told the that he thought it had either never had seen a human before and didn't know they were a threat or The old llion might have been in a state of hibrination and all it wanted to do was sleep off the winter.
Thanks for reading this long drawn out story but I thought it unique.
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