Good morning, friends. Last night, I could not believe what I was reading: “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday declared the eastern cougar to be extinct...” As an avid fan of all things wild, I was saddened. As a person whose favorite wild animal is the cougar (aka Puma, Florida Panther, Mountain Lion, and Fire Cat), I was devastated! How could this happen? Don’t people realize that extinction is forever?
I continued reading: “Once widely dispersed throughout the eastern United States, the mountain lion was all but wiped out by the turn of the last century... killed in vast numbers... states even held bounties....”
Grrr! Fighting against the reality of what I read and filled with fury, I finally fell asleep. In my dream world, Amazon Sage’s spirit filled with the fire of the fire cat to such a degree that she shape-shifted into the last Eastern Fire Cat. Suddenly she found herself running, running through forest and field, all the way to the top of the mountain. There, she roared her dismay for all animals, everywhere who face such an inglorious fate. Standing atop the mountain, she knows the hunters have her in their sites and remembers back to the last time she saw her mother. Back then, this powerful Eastern cougar was an adorable cub, playfully leaping from behind a bush and clumsily attacking her mother. But her mother has been shot and is too weak to nurse. Like the forest, the cub's life source has dried up. Futilely, the baby attempts to get her mother to respond. But soon, the mother cougar fades into the beyond and the little one instinctively knows she must leave the den or she too, will die.
Amazingly, the little one is found by an awkward teenage girl who loves wild animals and indigenous music. The girl’s name is Sage. For two years, in secret, Sage feeds and protects the young cub until able to be on her own. That is why she is so saddened today, when the sound of gunshots ring out, and the exquisite Eastern Cougar is no more. In her last, and bravest act, the Fire Cat roars her hope that humans will see what they are doing and stop before it’s too late. To kill her is to kill a part of our own soul. Sadly, in their selfish revelry, shooting for pleasure from the cockpit of a plane, they do not hear.
As Sage is about to awaken, Amazon Sage shifts back into the shape of the girl who reads the end of the article about the Eastern Cougar. It says: “The [extinction] decision does not affect the status of the Florida panther, another endangered wildcat.....” Now I know what we must do. “We must save the Florida Panther!”
