The Bungle In The Jungle

The little cat had been sleeping all day and now the empty feeling in her stomach awakened her.  She opened her eyes and yawned and stretched.  For a few minutes she lay listening to the rustling of diurnal beasts returning to their lairs.  She recognized the scratching of small animal as they climbed up trees and into their holes and hollows. Branches swishing and twigs breaking nearby told her that monkeys were busy preparing their beds.  She cocked her ears at the faint whoosh of wings as a large bird descended into its nest somewhere at the top of the canopy. 

At last she crept out of her nest. Her spotted fur blended perfectly into the evening shadows.  She paused and sniffed the air.  Her large eyes easily pierced the looming darkness.  The little cat gathered her legs under her and leaped effortlessly across six feet of space into a neighboring tree where she crept along a limb, pausing occasionally to listen and sniff the air.

Something moved in the lower branches of a nearby tree.  In the waning light she spotted a small monkey preparing its nest. The little primate pulled the tips of branches together and wove them into a crude hammock.  She eased back along the limb to the tree trunk and then moved to the other side.  She clung to the trunk and then, in an extraordinary feat for a cat, she rotated her paws 180 degrees and began to descend head first like a squirrel.  She peered around the trunk and saw that she was in perfect position to sneak up and ambush the little monkey.  She slipped around the trunk and inched along a limb until she was directly over the monkey and then dug in the claws on her back foot and dangled above the unsuspecting monkey.

The spotted brown cat blended into the mottled background of leaves and branches and the monkey, busy weaving its nest, didn't notice her hanging just above him.  The cat had become one with the shadows of night.

Finally, with the sturdy ends of branches knitted into a hammock, the monkey began to line its bed with leaves.

Its bed ready now, the monkey stretched and scratched itself as it took one last, careful look around.  The little primate caught a glimpse of the predatory feline.  With a screech, it leaped straight out into space and crashed into the branches below. 

Quickly the cat dropped into the nest.  The branches bent and swayed.  She gathered her legs under her and leaped in pursuit of the fleeing monkey, but her weight and the force of her leap were too much. The hammock disintegrated and she was left dangling while the monkey made its escape.

The Margay, also known in the South American jungles as The Little Tiger Cat, swung back onto the branch and peered down, her long tail twitching, as she watched the monkey escape.  She then leaped to another limb and cocked an ear in her never ending search for the next meal.