A Story for our Grandson Michael's Birthday

with love from grandparents:
Patricia Mitchell Saunders
Thomas Carson Saunders
November 7, 2016

Michael was late for classes and canoeing these waterways provided the fastest route.  He hadn't gone far when the river otters came swimming alongside and started pushing the canoe towards the shore.

Not at all sure what the Amazon giant otters had in mind, he attempted to keep the canoe in mid-stream, but they quickly shoved the canoe up to the stream's edge.  Michael gave up and pulled the canoe ashore.  The otters came clamoring after him, sitting down next to the canoe, chattering nervously and looking toward the sound of faint growls and metallic scrapping coming through the dense jungle.  Michael knew that illegal hunting was threatening the already endangered South American jungle animals.  He expected that what he was hearing was a trapped animal and maybe poachers.

He picked up an oar and started towards the growls.

The exhausted young jaguar didn't put up much of a fight as Michael pulled him from the cage.  Speaking softly he carried the weak scared creature back to the river.  The thirsty young jaguar drank from the rivers edge and was still drinking when they all heard the motor of an approaching boat.  Michael shoved the jaguar into the canoe, pushed them back onto the river and started paddling for the brush on the opposite side of the river.  He pulled the brush over them and laid down next to the jaguar, all now invisible from the river.

Two poachers pulled their pontoon boat to the spot Michael and the cat just fled.  They vanished into the jungle but quickly reappeared and began looking at the prints in the mud, otters', jaguar's, Michael's.  Since coming down the river, the poachers hadn't passed a boat, they pushed back into the water and headed downstream, in the direction of Michael's village.

Once the sound of the poachers' motor dimmed, Michael pushed aside the brush and paddled as hard as he could towards his school.  The jaguar sat upright, his tail dragging through the water, happy to be out of that trap and with the strong clever young man who rescued him.  When Michael pulled the canoe up to the school's lawn, the kids dropped their books and ran out to get close to the mysterious jaguar.

Since that morning, the cat visits Michael in his village and at school.  Sometimes the villagers watch him atop the piano, listening to Michael play.  Everyone loves that jaguar, and villagers patiently overlook the occasional missing chicken.

Oh, and the poachers? The next time they tried to motor that stretch of the river, the otters surfaced beneath the pontoon boat, dumped the poachers into the stream, dragged the empty pontoon out into the current and excitedly chattered alongside as it motored away.  Thus, the poachers were left to swim ashore, and take their unfortunate chances with the untrapped but extremely annoyed jungle creatures.  After a night of being scared, thirsty, hungry, they realized that the trapped animals felt exactly that same way, scared, thirsty, hungry.  So, feeling remorse, they gave up poaching forever.

The End