Our End Of The Line

by Ron Foster

  Walt instead of trusting his handy .22 carbine in this situation, and the new scary thought it might have rabies, had the 20 gauge single shot clutched tightly in his hand for any encounter with such a ferocious razor clawed beast and his Henry slung on his back in the scabbard. The plan was, If the bush said “Rawarr” he was going to point that shotgun and say “Boom!” The handy .22 carbine was great but nothing says leave me alone like point and shoot at close range with a shotgun loaded with buckshot. Friggin’ rabid damn bobcat! Who in the hell would consider such a thing? Walt chided himself as he did not know if the thing was actually rabid or not, but it had been acting strange by not hunting close to water or jumping the narrow shallow creek.

  “How long does it take anyway when rabies sets in and this weird aversion to water like a vampire has to Holy water sets in? Strange stuff, indeed! But if any foamy mouthed cat appeared today on the way to the deer stand, that 20 gauge full of #3 buck would end that conversation quickly!” Walt thought as he approached the ladder to his stand.

  “I am loving this scabbard and sling arrangement I got! Swap out, shotgun goes in the scabbard now, .22 rifle slings on my shoulder and my hands are free to climb with; up the ladder I go!” Walt thought, pausing mid-ladder to assess his surroundings.

  “Wonder if I should have told Yoshi I thought that bobcat might have rabies?” Walt thought to himself. “Oh, hell No! It was hard enough to get him to think of what that Bob’s cat thing as he called it was to begin with!” All most laughing out loud and catching himself, Walt remembered trying to explain to Yoshi that armadillos might have leprosy but they were eating them anyway these days and remembering where that conversation went. Ha! Wait till Yoshi meets that squirrel that lives in the tree over the picnic table that he was told not to be shooting at! That tree rat had an aversion to strangers visiting near him and would proceed to throw pine cones and twigs at whoever got under his nest tree! But it lived there and was amusing to Walt and because it lived so close to the house, he gave him his zone of sanctuary and immunity against being hunted. Walt had declared this soft hearted protectiveness for his own soul for whatever reasons and found the little critter entertaining and his friend he used to even occasionally feed.

  Walt grabbed the rungs of the ladder and headed up; he eyed the bottom of the deer stand for any signs that wasps had decided to build themselves a nest and took a quick glance around the woods about midway up. All was quiet and nothing was in his treadle snare trap about 50 yards off. He hadn’t expected the bobcat to get into it, but had set it anyway to show Yoshi its construction while explaining it was a bit “busy” looking for the task and that the suspicious human avoiding cat would most likely avoid such a contraption but you never knew. He had added a loose feather to it to tempt the wily cat to investigate from the end of his spring pole that he was hoping would be tempting enough to the critter but he really didn’t have much hope in it. Of course now, if a possum or coon happened by they would probably step on it like it was a jungle gym or something and get themselves caught!

  Walt continued his climb up the 14 foot ladder and peered over the edge of the plywood floor and noted with shock that something or someone had been up here recently. Bits of orange plastic had been carved or gnawed off the orange plastic chair he had up there and amongst the odd bits of leaf litter and twigs on the floor that had fallen down into the stand, he spied some small bones and bits of fur off in one corner.

  “What the hell had done that?” Walt thought climbing off the last rung of the ladder to stand on the floor of his tiny tree fort like platform and survey the signs. “Owl? Hawk? What in the world had eaten their dinner up here in his tree stand and messed up his chair?” Walt thought with a quick cautionary look up in the branches of the oak tree above him in case a bird or something was still hanging around. Noting nothing about to swoop down on him and dispute his claim to this place, he began studying the edge of his seat that something evidently thought had been tasty. Looked like something a puppy had gnawed on, certainly wasn’t a bird, could be a possum, raccoon? Squirrel maybe, they were like rats when it came to gnawing on things they weren’t supposed to? Walt was guessing and cussing whatever it was for ruining his chair that he had gotten from the side of the road many years ago. It looked like it had once served in some school classroom or cafeteria somewhere. He noted a faint smell and saw whatever it was that had snuck up here uninvited had evidently pissed in one corner of the triangular looking kids tree house stand which was supported by one big tree and two smaller ones.

  “Well, it certainly wasn’t a squirrel that had peed in that corner, smelled kind of like cat piss. Cat piss! Oh hell, that danged Bobcat has been up here!” Walt decided with a shock and then noted some scratch marks on a 2x4 in back of him where that hell cat had evidently spent some time sharpening its claws.

  “Now this feud had become even more personal! Robbing traps and depleting game around here was one thing, but invading his personal space and tearing up his chair was game on! He sure was glad that son of a bitch wasn’t still up here when he had poked his head over the entrance to this stand!” Walt thought with a shudder and began mentally reviewing what these signs meant and trying to take a guess on how long it was since it had curled up for a snack and a nap in his deer stand.

  Walt knew that the Bobcat was a solitary and nocturnal animal that is most active in the darkness of night, tending to hunt most during dawn and dusk. During the day, Bobcats sleep and rest in dens in the form of a rock crevice or hollow tree with one individual having a number of dens within its home range. It was still breaking dawn so chances were it would be still out skulking around in the woods somewhere. Bobcats are highly territorial and mark their ranges with scents from their urine and feces as well as distinctive claw marks on trees to alert others of their presence. Males patrol a large home range which often overlaps a number of smaller female territories but the two will not interact until the breeding season which begins in the winter. At other times of the year though, Bobcats tend to avoid one another to reduce the chances of them being injured in a fight.

  “I wonder if that danged wild cat is a male or female? Those claw marks certainly look like it is a bigger than average male.” Walt considered before thinking oh shit that toothy varmint might consider his tree stand its new den if it was in the area and started scanning the woods all the way around. Having such a creature basically living in his backyard at times freaked him out and he knew he must take that animal out even if it meant he had to try tracking it down for a few days.

  He smelled the wood smoke coming from his house a few hundred yards away and knew Yoshi had just fired up the rocket stove because once it caught good it wouldn’t be so easy to smell. Walt wondered whether or not he should climb down and tell Yoshi not to go hunting in the orchard this morning since the animal might be in that vicinity hoping to catch an unawares squirrel or bird on the ground nibbling at some half-ripe fallen fruit.

  He wasn’t worried about the critter attacking Yoshi unless it did indeed did have rabies and in this grid down world even a small bite from such an encounter in this grid down world would mean a long drawn out death interspaced with bouts of violent insanity if Walt even considered letting him live in a quarantined environment.

  Now if that wild cat was indeed rabid and Yoshi or he got bit, one or the other of them should shoot the other mercifully within a few days. That gruesome realization had him second guessing himself about his resolve to track the beast down as well as whether or not he should leave this spot he had got himself prepositioned into hopefully at just the right time.

  If that Bobcat had luck with its nocturnal hunt and was in the area, it might be heading this way to his deer stand to den up and if he was lucky he could get a shot at it then. If he climbed down to warn Yoshi, he would miss his chance and might not get another. He wondered what time it actually was, time had stopped for him the day the grid went down because he didn’t wear a watch and he was reduced to estimat
ing it by observing the position of the sun or the moon.

  Time didn’t matter much anymore to him but he religiously checked each day off his calendar so that he could keep up with important planting dates and he relied heavily on his Farmer’s Almanac to predict the weather and this year’s forecast said it was going to be a hard winter he needed to get ready for. Walt wasn’t too much worried about the cold temperatures coming at the moment as he was starting to sweat profusely as the morning sun got warmer and the idea of him sitting in a wildcat den waiting on the supposed owner to return home sank in.

  Now it was all about the matter of how he wanted to get set up as the welcome committee and that vexing problem of which way that cat might come from threw a monkey wrench in his plans no end. The original plan had been for him to be sitting quietly in his chair high above his baited traps and snares and try to get a shot at the slinking feline as it approached the bait or better yet have it already possibly caught in a set.

  Walt couldn’t see all his traps that he had set out from this vantage point but the ones out of visual range were all bobcat specific and cat curiosity based versus blood smell attractant so hopefully some other animal wouldn’t have tripped them. However, the worm had taken a turn on him now with the knowledge that thing had denned up here before. If he was sitting in his chair facing his bait stations looking over the camo painted ply board that cat could see him and the chances of it looking up at its den instead of not looking up and traveling along unawares checking out his traps put the kibosh on that plan. He could sit inside of the tree stands enclosure and not be seen and try looking out of the tiny space between the sheets of ply board at the apex of the triangle but it wasn’t wide enough to aim a rifle through.

  “Hell with that looking in front of me! I am worried about that thing coming in through the open door in back of me when I am looking the other way!” Walt thought with alarm and sat with his back to the apex and holding his Henry carbine at the ready towards the open area where the ladder gave access to his perch and pondered his dilemma.

  “How much noise would that thing make coming up that ladder or up any one of these three trees for that matter.” Walt thought quickly looking over his shoulder. Dang cat has a climbing gear like no tomorrow and could get up here in a hurry anyway it liked.” Walt considered.

  “No, that cat will come up to bed down using the easiest access it could get and that would be between the open area I got between them two sheets of plywood at the ladders end.” Walt considered and having nothing much to compare it to, thought about all the leopards he had seen in those African wildlife documentary’s he had seen on Tv of a leopard dragging an antelope or other prey up to a likely tree fork or something to dine on and be safe from lions with. Well, there were no lions around here thank God to worry about but there were coyotes, feral dogs, possibly a black bear and of course hungry humans hunting to worry about so the animal might like the sanctuary of a den to dine in. Hell, it had done so before why not now if it had managed to make a kill close by? On the other hand, Walt hadn’t noticed any claw marks on the tree bark but he hadn’t been looking for them either, I wonder if it uses the ladder rungs just like I did? If it does I would probably barely hear it!” Walt said to himself thinking about swapping out the Henry .22 for the more potent Iver Johnson single shot 20 gauge scattergun.

  “No, what I need to do is try to catch sight of it before it sees me and zap it at a distance.” Walt thought going into Army sniper mode. You see when a sniper sets up in building he doesn’t poke his gun out the window looking for targets, too easy to be spotted that way. Oftentimes instead, he sits across the room from a window and just shoots at what he can see from there and any observers on ground can’t see him or her at all. Walt considered getting comfortable with his back against the blind of the tree stand and looking at possible fields of fire but he was limited by trees and brush etc. in his way and dismissed that idea. He did however have a clear shot all the way down the trail leading from his house to here and considered that.

  “The path of least resistance? No there were other trails and game paths leading here and there was no assurance the animal would travel that way unless it was coming by the house or work sheds. The house? No, the animal should avoid that area but not necessarily, lots of tempting cooking smells and places where Walt had burned trash off at. Walt wished he had Yoshi on this hunt now instead of just finding something for him to do and he chanced standing up to see if he could see any sign of him anywhere for a few seconds in case he was in the garden for some reason. The two of them would have had all the bases and accesses covered had he allowed him to tag along but his inexperience hunting was something Walt had not wanted to leave to chance.

  Yoshi meantime was out of sight on the back deck of the house marveling at his success and the ease he had getting the Silverfire Boy Scout stove going and sitting back sipping his first cup of coffee from his efforts while looking towards the woods to where Walt had gone into.

  He picked up the Gamo Swarm Maxim air rifle Walt had lent him and started to glass the area using its 3x9 scope on its lowest setting to have a good field of view. He sure did like the crisp bright scope, it was one of the easiest and clearest ones he had ever had the privilege to use and he was looking forward to using it on something other than the empty beer cans and paper targets.

  He couldn’t see any sign of Walt from his vantage point and put the rifle down and sipped his coffee thinking this new life with Walt was sure a lot of fun at times. He would have probably paid hard money before the grid went down to learn wood lore from that old southern character, but he knew now the skills he was learning weren’t all fun and games. This was true survival that still required lots of practice and experience and there was no room for many failures.

  Yoshi eyed the trees on the off chance he might spot a squirrel but Walt had already warned him that chances of were slim that he would spot any squirrels except for that villainous creature Walt had warned him not to shoot by his picnic table in the front yard. Walt could sit out there and Yoshi could sit with Walt and have a quiet conversation but Yoshi alone? Hell no, that tree rat had started chittering and barking at him the moment he had set foot out the front door. Yoshi had been careful to look out for flying twigs and pinecones as he hurried past the area that bushy tailed creature from hell decided was its own to harass any strangers from. That’s why he was having his coffee in the peace and relative safety of the back deck before running the gauntlet by its tree back to the house. “Not for the stew pot!” Walt had told him with a smile while waggling a finger at him as he had left the house this morning and said hi to that furry trickster devil up in the tree before ambling towards his deer stand.

  Yoshi looked between the two metal sheds not far from the wooden deck that he was sitting on at the orchard that he would soon be enjoying hunting in and saw a movement in the wood line next to it in the distance. He reached for the air rifle and scope to get a better look at it and was cranking up the magnification on the scope when he saw the unmistakable momentary blur of the bobcat making a mad dash through the grassy area between the fruit trees and disappearing into the bordering woods.

  “Here he comes Walt! Hope you got your gun ready and get a shot!!” Yoshi thought excitedly before becoming anxious about what he would have done if that wild cat had come running by him this morning. Why, if he hadn’t have stayed around the house for coffee this morning he might have been down there or on the way there when that bobcat had decided to run out of the woods! Walt had said that air rifle would have taken that lynx looking critter down with a head shot but Yoshi knew he would have probably dropped the rifle and pulled out that big .357 pistol of his in a panic and shot all 6 rounds at if he had seen that thing anywhere near him.

  Walt sat peeking around the tree through the opening to his deer stand fearful a pissed off bobcat might come up the ladder to surprise him and had pretty much given up on the idea of trying to snipe at it from a distance. If it was
headed this way, it was probably to den up since the baited traps were unmolested. He would hang out here for another hour and then go to the house and get his big commercial 220 conibear steel body kill trap and rig something up here in the doorway later on and not come up that ladder again without his shotgun pointing in front of him some way, he decided. Of course, on the other hand even though he could probably climb and carry that lightweight 20 gauge up the ladder easily, however, if he blew it off he would probably bust his ass from the recoil throwing him off balance but it was the best idea he could come up with.

  “That dang bob tailed cat had him worried now and he mentally inventoried what few other modern aircraft cable snares he had left in his shed and contemplated surrounding his house with them as a possible safety measure. He wasn’t worried about the normally shy creature attacking him or Yoshi should their paths cross, but if that sucker was rabid there was a definite possibility in its sickened state it would and could lash out madly at every animal around here including them and spread that dread disease even further. If an outbreak of rabies started up around here he was going to be in a hell of a pickle!” Walt groused before the shrill cry of a hawk told him something in the woods had upset him or her.

  Walt had been living on this property for 10 years and at a certain time of the year, every year since he could remember a big red-tailed hawk lived in the hollow down by the creek and would loudly complain if he or any other creature entered that area of the woods. That was behind him however and he gingerly half turned and extended his body to look over the ply board ramparts of his redoubt to see what might be moving in the woods.