by Rick Chesler
“Early evening, between five and eight, when it’s still light out.”
Kane took out his cell phone to note the time. It was still early afternoon. He didn’t have any direct experience catching wild cats, but he had heard they were notoriously difficult to find, and even hard to catch if they were found, which is why many people preferred to trap them.
He was resigning himself to the likelihood that this would probably develop into a long-term project when Enrique pointed off to their left, into a stand of hardwood trees. “There he is! Look at him, just sitting there like he owns the place. Stupid cat!”
Kane patted the man gently on the shoulder. “Take it easy. Let’s not scare it off just yet. Let me get a look at it.”
“Ugly beast,” Enrique muttered under his breath, but he calmed down after that. Kane stopped walking for fear they would spook the predator. It lay sprawled out on a low tree branch. Kane hadn’t been sure what to expect. A lot of “big” cats really didn’t seem all that big to him—they always looked like these skinny, semi-malnourished creatures to him, that had speed but not strength. But this cat was big by any sense of the word. At least two hundred pounds, Kane judged, maybe more. And he knew that weight would be almost all muscle.
“What do you think? Can you catch it?” Enrique asked.
Kane shook his head slowly, not to say no, but to indicate the difficulty of what he was being asked to do. “Maybe.”
“You have a tranquilizer?” Enrique pantomimed shooting a rifle.
Kane shook his head. “I’m not licensed for that.”
“Maybe if I put some tequila in one of the goat troughs he drinks from, he’ll get drunk and pass out!” Enrique laughed at his own joke and in the tree, the big cat’s ears flattened back as it turned its head to look at them.
Kane froze, putting a hand on Enrique’s shoulder for him to do the same. The panther went rigid also, but continued to stare in their direction. After a few seconds, it silently opened its mouth in a menacing grimace, but without making a sound, like a silent roar. The two stood stock still for a minute, and then the panther relaxed some, returning its ears to the upright position and looking away from them.
Kane pulled Enrique gently back until he could talk without spooking the animal. “Okay, Enrique, I need to work alone now. You can let me handle it, and I’ll call you if I need anything.”
Enrique said nothing at first, but then nodded and walked back toward his house. Kane went back to observing the panther, which reverted to a sleeping position in the tree, legs draped over the limb, hanging down. Kane thought about how he could capture this beast. He harbored no illusions that he would be able to simply walk up to it in order to…to do what? He didn’t even know. Throw a net over it? He had nets in the truck that were large enough… But he imagined two hundred pounds of panicked, struggling panther falling out of that tree and he didn’t want any part of that. A net might immobilize the creature for a few minutes at best, but he needed something to really contain it. He needed something more secure.
I need a cage… Cages weren’t something he worked with since they weren’t usually used with reptiles. But he knew where he could get one. He flashed on his trips to the Wildlife Relocation Center and mentally pictured the rows and stacks of cages they had stacked around outside. He wasn’t sure what they were for, birds maybe…the Center handled all sorts of animals, not only reptiles, although it was of course the alligators they were most known for and that people came in droves every day to see.
He was pretty sure he was on good enough terms to borrow a cage that would fit this cat without too many problems. But would the panther still be here after driving to get it? It wasn’t all that far away, but still… He decided to try something that would up the chances it would stick around.
Kane went back to his truck and from the back pulled a plastic tote full of raw meat that he usually used to attract gators when he needed to lure one from a pond. It was easier to get them to come to the bait than to wait for them to crawl out of the pond, and certainly a lot safer than putting on a mask and snorkel to look for them in the water, which he had seen some crazy guys do.
He wasn’t sure whether the panther would like it, but meat was meat, and panthers were carnivores, so he reasoned it was worth a try. But then what? He wasn’t exactly sure, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. Meanwhile, he carried the cooler full of raw meat—ham hocks—back to the place where he’d observed the feline. It was still there, looking very relaxed now. He thought it might actually be napping. It occurred to him that with a gun, this would be an easy kill. But Enrique had made it quite clear he didn’t want any sort of attention, so that was out. Not that he could legally own a gun, anyway.
Kane decided not to try and carry the cooler of meat any closer to the cat. Didn’t want to spook it. So he set it on the ground, opened the lid, and watched for a reaction. Sure enough, he saw the nose twitch, the ears perk up a bit. Kane softly backpedaled until he was a safe distance away, then he turned and jogged back to his truck.
He got back on the road and made the drive over to the wildlife center, where he could see by the number of cars in the parking lot that things were busy. He thought about asking for Alicia but decided to see what he could do on his own first. He really needed to be quick about this. He walked around to the back service gate. As was not unusual, it was open, probably because someone had just loaded something in or out.
Kane walked through it, nodding to a young man stepping on empty cardboard boxes to prepare them for recycling. He nodded back but said nothing, apparently not caring who walked into the place. Or maybe he recognized him from his animal drop-offs, even though Kane didn’t remember him.
He followed a path past a gigantic gator skin stretched out and pinned to a board. He remembered seeing the cages stacked up around here. He found them, and was immediately disappointed. All were much too small for the panther. He wasn’t sure what these were made for—domestic dogs and cats, it looked like, or maybe opossums or raccoons. But no way were they going to work on that big panther. He wondered if it was done consuming all the meat and would now get bored and wander off. Hopefully, it would feel like a nap again and climb back up the tree, or even better, nap right there on the ground.
Kane heard the sound of squeaky hinges and turned 180 in time to see an employee, a female he didn’t recognize, emerge from some kind of utility room. She was pushing a hand truck piled with palettes, and didn’t even glance at him as she wheeled her load down the path. Kane looked both ways, saw that no one else seemed to be nearby, and then he ducked into the building—a shack, really—some sort of maintenance building.
As he had hoped, there were more cages inside. Larger ones, too, along with an assortment of long-handled yard and landscaping tools, wheelbarrows, dollies, hoses, pallets, and buckets. A musty smell permeated the place, and pencil-thin beams of sunlight penetrated the rusty corrugated metal roof. A small gecko peeked its head out from behind a shovel handle.
Kane unstacked a few cages that were on top of the one he wanted and set them aside. He pulled free the large one on the bottom, the biggest one in the room. He estimated it to be about five feet long, three feet wide, and three high. He was pretty sure it would hold the panther.
He stacked the cages he didn’t need up neatly against the wall and picked up the big one. Although bulky, it was constructed of thin steel walls, perforated with holes for ventilation. The front had a door on hinges with bars. Kane carried it vertically in front of him. He slipped sideways with it through the door out onto the path, and then he heard a voice.
“Lyle? What are you doing?”
SIXTEEN
“Alicia? Oh hey, how’s it going?” Kane set the cage down on the ground in front of him and put on his brightest smile. She returned one of her own, although clearly it was tinged with confusion as to what he was doing here carrying a large cage.
“You need that for a gator?” Her expression told him that
he didn’t need it for a gator. No one used them for that, the bags and tape worked fine. Unless… Kane thought fast, his fingers clutching the bars of the cage door.
“I want to try and trap a gator that’s been prowling around a client’s property but that I haven’t been able to find. Jay said I could borrow it for a night. Gonna put some bait in here and set it next to the pond where it’s been hanging out, run a trip wire to the cage door…”
To his great relief, Alicia nodded. It seemed the reference to one of the few other names he knew at the Center besides Alicia’s had worked. “Good luck! Hey, you know that croc we released?”
His blood ran slower through his veins. ”Yeah?”
“Well, it was tagged with a micro-GPS unit, and so I stopped into the tracking office to ask them where it was. I like to check up on them, just out of curiosity. I know it’s weird, but I feel like I’m somehow responsible for them after releasing them into the wild…”
Kane gave her what he hoped was an understanding nod, and she continued.
“Anyways, they said the tag wasn’t moving almost since the release, which meant it probably came off…”
“Oh no!” Kane doubted his mock concern would win any Oscars but she seemed not to notice, picking right up again.
“Yeah, so check this out: today we get a call from Fish and Wildlife, and they found the tag.”
“Really? Wow!”
“Yeah, they called us up and said, ‘we found this tag, looks like a croc tag…’And then the read the numbers and that confirmed it. It was right in the same general area as we released it at. So probably it must have come off right after we left, which is weird, because I saw it and it was on there. I feel kind of bad, actually like it’ s my fault, even though I’m not the one who put the tag on.”
Kane shook his head slowly. “Nah, not your fault at all. It could have come off during the bagging and transport, or been broken but still attached, but that’s not your fault. Five hundred pounds of croc is pretty unpredictable, right?”
“You can say that again. I just feel bad we won’t be able to collect more data on the big guy later on, like how far it traveled. It’s nice to be able to say for sure, ‘This is the one we released at such and such a place on such and such a date, you know?”
Kane nodded. “Can’t win ‘em all, though.”
“You’re right. Here, let me grab an end. I’ll help you out to your truck.”
“Oh really, it’s okay. I got it. I’m sure you have stuff to do.”
“No, I insist. I could use a little break.”
If Kane didn’t know any better, he’d say Alicia had a little crush on him. He was a good-looking guy, after all, and he’d seen the signs more than once. But a relationship with a woman would complicate his already-complex situation even more, especially this one. He didn’t want to seem stubborn about her helping him to the point of being odd, so he tipped the cage over while she backed up and grabbed hold of the opposite end. Together, they walked with it down the path to the rear exit gate, Kane almost flinching every time they saw another person, wondering if they would be the one to shout out, “Hey, where are you going with that cage? Or maybe, “Hey, we need that cage for…”
But fortunately no one did say anything, and a couple of minutes later they were through the gate and into the parking lot, where Kane’s truck waited, tailgate already down, not far away.
Alicia helped him slide the cage up onto the truck bed, and then she looked at him without saying anything for a moment, almost as if expecting him to say something. Does she know? bounced around in his head for three seconds or so, but if she did know, he was sure she would have said something by now. So far, she liked him, but he knew she wouldn’t jeopardize her career for him. In fact, she would likely be disgusted that he was using some of the animals entrusted to his care to fight for his own personal gain. He liked her and didn’t want to mislead her, so he decided right then and there to make sure things didn’t develop with her. He would keep it all business and try to minimize his time with her.
“I gotta get going after this gator,” he said at length.
She nodded, looking perhaps a touch disappointed, but she perked up to say, “Good luck!”
“Thanks, I’ll need it.” Kane turned and got into his truck. Usually, he took a little time to get some music playing before he started driving, but this time, he skipped that and rolled off right away, not wanting someone else to see the cage in his truck and ask what’s going on, or for Alicia to ask any more questions about anything.
As he made the drive back over to Enrique’s property, his mind turned to the formidable task ahead. There was so much to go wrong with this best-laid plan. Would the panther even still be there, for one thing? He took his mind of the problematic nature of the whole thing by forcing himself to mentally step through a successful capture. He visualized himself holding the net, approaching the cat, throwing the net, watching it unfold over his prey… By the time he turned into Enrique’s drive, he felt like he had some degree of confidence.
He parked in the same spot as before, figuring it didn’t spook the cat then, and also because Enrique told him to park there. He wanted him to know he was here…if something goes wrong? He could call one of his friends and get someone to help. That would be the prudent thing to do. But who knew how long this panther would stick around. Curious to see if it was even still here now, Kane pulled the cage from the truck, trying to make as little noise as possible. He could run to the spot and check first, saving a trip carrying the cage if the cat wasn’t there, but he decided to think positive and eliminate that extra trip if it did still happen to be there.
Other than his vehicle, he didn’t see any sign of Enrique as he lugged the cage back to the spot near the tree where they had observed the panther before. The familiar sensation of his sweat-soaked shirt sticking to his skin in the Florida humidity lulled him into work mode as he lugged the cage through knee-high grass. As soon as he had a line of sight, his gaze went to the tree limb where the big cat had been resting, but now it was empty.
He then looked to the bucket of bait meat he’d left for the panther and saw the bucket lying on its side a few feet away from where he’d left it. Empty but for a few splashes of blood. The cat had fed, but did it leave the area afterward? Kane scanned the vicinity, including higher in the tree, then on the ground, 360 degrees…
Shock rocked his system as he spotted the panther crouched low in the grass not ten feet off to his right. You idiot. It’s been stalking you since you got back here! He willed himself not to make any threatening moves. He could only hope that the cat recognized him as the one who left the meat for it and so might be waiting to see if he had some more. Why the hell didn’t he think of that? In his haste to collect the cage, he’d neglected to pick up more bait. His other implements were here—throw net and snare pole. But more meat would keep the cat preoccupied. Instead, now it watched his every move.
Kane’s hands went to his pockets, feeling for something he hoped would still be there. He felt the lump and pulled it out—a package of alligator jerky from the tourist store at the Wildlife Center. It wasn’t much, not nearly enough, really—but it was meat, and it was all he had. And it was pungent meat, at that.
Already he could see the panther’s nose twitching as it sniffed the air. Kane knew it would take this formidable beast all of two seconds to slurp up the little treat he had to offer. The most time it would buy him was when the cat bent down to pick it up off the ground after he threw it. He had to have things as ready to go as possible before that moment.
Kane glanced again at his capture implements: net, cage, and snare pole. And then, in the middle of taking a deep breath, a thought hit him with high clarity: You’re not capturing this panther just to help this guy out and make a few bucks, are you? He was going through an awful lot of trouble, he had to admit. A normal person in his position would wait for more guys to help, and if the panther was gone by the time they could get her
e, then so be it. So why are you doing it? Just to help old Enrique out? You don’t even know the guy…
In the back of his mind, he knew why he was doing it. Imagine facing off against this cat in the tank… Even better, imagine the payday that would come with the betting…
That was it, wasn’t it? Without that, there was really no reason to put himself through this much trouble, this much risk, for what essentially boiled down to handyman pay. There were enough alligators to support the meager living he could make removing animals, and those were dangerous enough.
The big cat grimaced along with a quiet but perceptible growl, staring intently at the dried meat product in Kane’s hand. He knew he needed to act right now if he didn’t want to lose that hand. He unwrapped the gator jerky and tossed it on the ground about ten feet out to his right, between him and the cat.
The panther hesitated for a moment, looking to Kane, then over to the meat. Kane backed away slowly, toward his equipment, while keeping an eye on the rare cat. It began to walk toward the jerky, sniffing the ground as it went.
Kane walked backwards until his foot came into contact with the bunched-up netting. Then he stooped down and picked it up. The cat stopped about three feet away from the jerky, looking over at him, very wary. Kane felt like talking to it in a soothing voice, telling it to go on, get the meat, but he’d been silent so far and didn’t want to spook it with the sudden sound of his voice. He knelt down and picked up the net, which he had already left in a ready to throw position. He held it in his hands, watching and waiting for the panther to make its move.
With a final vocalization that sounded like a bark, the panther pounced onto the jerky with a light hop and licked it up off the ground. While it ingested the morsel, Kane stepped forward and threw the net. It arced through the air, unfolding as it travelled. By the time it reached the big feline, it had completely unfurled and began to fall. The full expanse of netting landed on top of the snacking panther, which sprung off the ground using its powerful hind legs.