Time seemed to stand still as looked down at the scene before Officer Barnes and I. A young girl attacked and clinging to life thanks to an extremely hungry Mountain Lion. A Mountain Lion that had paid for the attack with its life, as Molly still held it in a suffocating bite. The scratches were fairly deep and blood seemed to be pouring out of the wound. Mrs. Fitzpatrick was doing her best to try and stop the bleeding, but it just wasn't enough. Officer Barnes quickly got down on his knees and added his own hands to trying to apply to stop the bleeding.
"Come again, Officer Barnes, did you say ambulance?" crackled the dispatch officer through the walkie talkie on Officer Barnes' chest.
He then took out the device and tossed it to me, "You talk to them, George, my hands are full."
I caught it and watched as Officer Barnes returned his hands to try and apply pressure. I then moved to where I could be seen by the crowd of people watching from the inside of the school. Some of them were kids, but most were aides and teachers.
"This is Officer Wayne," I spoke into the walkie talkie, "send for an ambulance. A girl is hurt."
"What about Officer Barnes?" the dispatch officer asked.
"He is fine," I answered, "Molly has killed the Mountain Lion, but not before it could injure a student. Call in an ambulance!"
"Ten-four," was the only response as the dispatch officer seemed to pick up on how urgent my voice sounded.
I then deactivated the walkie talkie for a moment and turned toward the school. The girl would need serious medical attention and Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Officer Barnes wouldn't be enough. Not from the way the girl looked.
"GET THE NURSE OUT HERE!" I roared toward the school, "THE GIRL IS HURT!"
I left it at that, as I didn't want to scare any of the children that would certainly hear my voice. I then turned back to where the others outside were. The girl appeared to still be alive, but her breathing was slow and somewhat unsteady. Molly had finally released the Mountain Lion and the brown cat lay dead in the other corner of the playground equipment. Molly bore a few minor scratches on her arms and shoulders and parts of her dress were cut open, but the look on her face was not one of pain but horror. As if she had lost a child of her own right in front of her.
"Molly," I spoke as firmly as I could muster, "what happened?"
"It was horrible," Molly said slowly as she looked up to me and then down at the wounded girl, ignoring the sounds of sirens going through the town.
"I know," I answered, "what happened?"
"I don't know how it happened," Molly began, "we just brought everyone out for the pre-lunch recess. Mrs. Fitzpatrick and I were watching along the area here to make sure no one pulled any funny business. Though we expected it to be rough-housing type stuff... not this... not this... not this..."
She seemed to be breaking down, and while it wasn't something I was supposed to do while on duty, I moved forward and hugged her. She seemed to need it at the moment.
"I know," I answered, "I need you to finish sayng what happened, Molly. I promise that everything possible will be done to save the girl's life."
She nodded, "I heard what sounded like it was soft amusement and curiosity. A couple of kids said "kitty" a couple of times, and I guessed it was a house cat."
I looked down at her for a moment and saw her sigh heavily.
"But then the wind shifted, and it wasn't a house cat," Molly answered, "it didn't smell like a house cat... and when it charged toward the fence, the kids near it started to scream and run for the doors. We started to move around to see what was causing it and that is when I saw the Mountain Lion hurdle the fence. Most of the kids ran in one giant mass for the doors and the other aides were quick to act as as escort..."
"This girl wasn't with them, was she?" I asked nervously.
"No," Molly said weakly, "she was up in one of the towers. Mrs. Fitzpatrick urged her to hurdle the walls where I could catch her and carry her back to the school, but she was too scared. She made her way through the maze of passageways to head for the exit ramp, but the Mountain Lion focused on her, as she was falling well behind the other kids. It hurdled one of the walls and leaped at her, it's claws went across her abdomen as I arrived in the area... It gave one challenging cry, like it didn't recognize what I am..."
"We heard you roar back at it," I told her.
Molly then sort of sniffled, "seeing the girl at the mercy of this animal... it... it sent me into an animalistic rage. I was angry that it had come onto the school. I was angry that it had attacked a little girl. I was angry..."
"And you killed it," I finished.
"Yes," Molly almost whimpered and buried her head in my shoulder.
"You have nothing to be ashamed of, Mrs. Wayne," Officer Barnes spoke up from where he was, still trying to stop the bleeding, "if you hadn't killed the Mountain Lion, it likely would have finished the girl here off and carried her off. You gave her a fighting chance at survival."
"I still could have just scared it off," Molly argued.
"Maybe, but given that it attacked some one, animal control is likely to put it down anyway," Officer Barnes countered, "You've actually saved them some work... and as I said earlier... and more importantly, you saved the girl."
Molly didn't answer as the school nurse arrived with bandages and began to take charge in directing the first aide treatment of the wounded girl. At the same time, the animal control units arrived in the parking lot. I sighed and moved Molly to a position where she could sit down.
"Molly, you rest here," I instructed, and then turned to Officer Barnes, "I'll talk with the animal control officers. They're probably even more in the dark then we were when we first arrived."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The two animal control officers who arrived were not the same ones that responded to the supposed tiger attack on the Smith's cattle, but they both seemed to be just as on edge as those first two animal control officers were. Both were armed with tranquilizer rifles as I approached, and both jumped up in the air as I came around the corner of their SUV.
"You can put those away," I told them, "the Mountain Lion is dead."
"Dead?" one asked, "how could a human woman kill a Mountain Lion?"
"My wife is not human," I told them, surprised at how they could be making this mistake. Everybody in Columbia Falls knew who the tiger-people were.
"She's the tiger lady that lives here?" the second one asked.
I nodded.
"Sorry," the first sighed and took his partner's weapon and began to put them back in the case they had been taken from, "the call that got to us was that a Mountain Lion had attacked the school and that an aide was "battling" it. We didn't get any details as to who the aide was or what the aide was."
"Molly is not a "what"," I told him.
"Sorry," he sighed, "lack of a good term, I guess... can we see the body then? Get at good guess as to why it attacked the school?"
"It looked kinda scrawny to me," I told them.
The second man chuckled, "In terms of bulk size, most cats would be scrawny to you. Only another tiger or a lion will be comparable... Mountain Lions are stronger then they look, but in comparison with a tiger, given your size, it'd still be scrawny."
I then began to lead them back to the scene where the attack by the Mountain Lion on the girl and Molly's counter-attack was. The nurse seemed to be getting the scene with the girl under some control, and was informing Officer Barnes and Mrs. Fitzpatrick that there didn't appear to be any neck injuries. Molly was seated nearby holding the nurse's medical kit and handing them... or trying to hand them what they needed. The animal control officers meanwhile moved past them to look directly at the dead Mountain Lion.
"I'm going to guess that the cause of death for the Lion was strangulation?" the second animal control officer questioned, finding that there were few cuts or open wounds on the Mountain Lion.
"Molly still had it in the suffocation hold when we arrived," I informed him.
"Typical method for members of the cat family with large prey... or large rivals," the second animal control officer nodded.
"You were right though," the first spoke up, "this is pretty scrawny for a Mountain Lion."
"And young too," the second nodded, "like he just became independent."
"Is that a problem?" I wondered.
"For the Mountain Lion it was," the first sighed, "given that the call was that the cat attacked a person and your wife reacted in defense of the girl, I doubt you'll have a legal problem... the problem was completely on the Mountain Lion's side."
"Do you know why he came into town?" I asked.
"It's a female, actually," the second Animal Control officer answered, "anyway, she came into town trying to find food. More then likely, this lion just gained independence from its mother and moved off... now, normally she would have taken a territory adjacent to her mother's. Which is common with all wild cats... but it's possible that there was no open space. She ran into other adult females that were more mature then her and wouldn't share a territory... she could have run into a pack of wolves that while she could take them if they came one at a time, likely made her life rough as a group... or she ran afoul of a grizzly and the bear was in a bad mood."
"Either way," the first animal control officer picked up, "she couldn't get herself a territory outside of town and rapidly began to starve to death from lack of an established area to reside in... which means reduced hunting and increased competition. So she came into town seeking some safe hunting ground, and turned to these kids out of hunger, not knowing that they were protected by one of the world's largest cats."
"Could it be sick?" I wondered.
"It's possible," the second animal control officer shrugged, "but not likely. We'll need to do some tests with the lion here once we get it back our station.
I nodded. It seemed a little odd to me that they called the dead Mountain Lion a "lion" rather then adding the "Mountain" in front of it. But then, a lot of people called them "lions" along with many other names. It was probably easier to use the shorter name rather then use the actual name. And since Leon and Jacki lived in Peoria, the possible confusion between a Mountain Lion and an African Lion wasn't super likely.
"You're wife is vaccinated for Rabies, right?" the first asked.
"We both are," I nodded, "Molly actually just got her boosters a few days ago."
"Good," the first animal control officer answered, "that'll do until we can confirm that the Cougar here was acting out of starvation then from anything else."
I nodded.
"Do you need any help with the body?" I asked.
"It couldn't hurt," the first animal control officer answered and stepped aside while I moved in and lifted up the dead Mountain Lion, "thank you for your help."
"It's no problem," I answered, "my partner and I will be here until the ambulance arrives and we're certain we have all our statements taken."
The two animal control officers nodded and lead me back to their SUV. Once there, I placed the body of the dead cat in a specialized cage that they had brought, just in case the Mountain Lion had still been alive. As the cage door was shut, the next set of sirens got even louder. I turned to see that the ambulance had arrived.
"Here's hoping they can save the kid," I sighed.