Forest Cats
I used to hunt alot, I lived for hunting. This experience just about ruinedhunting for me though.
We were hunting in the foothills. I had walked up through somefairly dense woods early that morning, hoping to get a fewsquirrel. It turned out to be a poor hunt so I was attempting towalk out to where my friends and I had parked the truck. Ithought it was kinda odd when a cat showed up out of nowhere. Hejust sort of ran up on me out of the woods. I've always likedcats, so I called him and petted him some. He was friendly enoughto let me pet him, so I knew he belonged somewhere. I continuedwalking down hill. It seems I got somewhat confused about where Icame up the hill and as I walked, noticed I was moving sidewaysand off course every little while. I kept walking on , knowingthat when I hit the bottom I could walk out to my friends truck.Also, we had a special way to shoot, a signal, if there was aproblem. Suddenly, I walked out of the woods and onto a bald, (aclearing on a hill side).
I thought I must be a little lost, but these balds were notuncommon in the area. They usually represented where a homeplacehad been cleared and farmed at one time. I looked around but sawno buildings. I sat down on a rock, opened my pack and got out acan of vienna sausages. I opened the can and fed my feline friend.He ate like he was starved. When we were through, I stood up toget my bearings. I was surprised to see a whole lot of catsrunning thru the grass towards me. All were meowing, the wayhungry cats do just before you feed them. I decided it was timeto go on down to the truck. I started walking and the cats movedalong with me, meowing. They didn't harass me or get in my way,just sort of followed along. I guess there were about 50 of them.It was pretty unnerving anyway. So I picked up speed, whilehoping I wasn't too lost.
At the bottom of the bald, there was an old overgrown road thatled on down through the woods and I followed along it. Finally atthe bottom of the ridge, I came to a wooden gate across the road.I went through the gate, expecting the cats to follow me, butthey stayed inside the gate. I closed the gate. I'll tell you, Iwasn't sorry that they stayed inside the gate. At that moment,the cats all turned around and ran back up the old road towardsthe bald. I looked back up after them, and it seemed I could seean old woman standing at the other end of the road. I couldbarely make out her features and it wasn't long before she seemedto walk out of sight.
I walked in the direction of the truck and presently came uponthe truck and my friends. As we drove away, I told my friendsabout the cats. Dave, the guy driving remarked that the catsprobably belonged to the old woman who lived up on the bald. Iremarked that I hadn't seen any houses up there. Dave replied,"Oh yeah, she burned up in her cabin about 2 winters ago,they said the chimney must of caught fire." "ummm Jake,why are you so white, why you look as if you seen a ghost!"
Sorry if this was too long.