After a time the big pussy with the bobtail walked out of the grove and seated himself on a rock. Whatever had been troubling him seemed to have been chased away by his vocal efforts. He yawned and stretched his lithe body leisurely, then looked around with a satisfied smirk. He had the canyon to himself and seemed highly pleased. He was a male weighing perhaps twenty-five pounds. His ears had black tufts at the ends, his lips were white with whiskers springing from black spots. In this he favored the lynx cat. But his eye rings were white and his reddish-brown body was marked with cloudings suggesting spots while his feet were small like those of a house cat. His tail was not more than seven inches long, a stubby bobbed-off tail, but it jerked nervously as he sat smiling over his kingdom of rock piles and tall grass. He was not hungry and the hunting mood did not fill him. He had feasted well on wood rat and rabbit earlier that evening. He had simply wished to clear all neighbors from his presence. Now that he had done it he sat and smirked on the top of his big rock. But the big cat did not reckon with one hunter who was not impressed by his terrible song. A big, snowy owl came beating along the canyon wall. His dim shadow floated across the grass toward the rock where the cat was sitting. The owl had not feasted that evening. Fate had been unkind. Every rabbit pasture he had swept over had already been raided by coyotes or cats. The old owl was never choice about his prey. His way was to strike at any living thing that came under his powerful beak and talons. He saw the shadow on the rock move. The animal sitting there was not bigger than many he had killed before. With a scream he dived. His smashing body struck the surprised cat on the neck and back. Long talons sank deep into the stringy muscles while powerful wings battered the sleek sides, knocking him off his perch and rolling him over. Instantly the sleepy fellow was changed to a hissing, spitting demon. He twisted his body and with claws and teeth lashed back at the ripping beak and beating wings of the owl. The owl drove his fangs deeper and tore at his snarling victim with his hooked beak. The bobcat’s fangs found the neck of the owl and sank into it with crunching swiftness. Blood spattered and fur and feathers filled the air. The battlers clung to their death holds and exerted all their strength. The bobcat’s raking hind feet ripped feathers out of his assailant and found the stringy flesh beneath them; his fangs sank deeper. Over and over they rolled, the owl flapping and clicking his beak savagely, the cat hissing and snarling and yowling.