Junior and Dumb Old Bo
excerpt
He started to walk into the shadows of the trees when suddenly the moon broke free from its captors and flooded the path with light. Junior looked over his shoulder and smiled at the sight of the full moon rays. He looked around and after quickly verifying his direction he realized that he had been walking in the wrong direction. Junior corrected his path and then proceeded to walk in a westerly direction. He felt certain that he would be home soon.
As he was walking he stopped and swore that he had seen something move in the shadow of the large tree that stood only a few yards away. He looked carefully straining to see into the shadows and then he saw one of the large pigs come out of the shadows in front of him. Junior looked around for a tree that he could get to fast enough, to escape this pig once again, but he was just fed up with climbing trees. So he found another large branch lying on the ground next to him. He grabbed it and started to swing the stick while screaming at the pig, hoping to scare it away. The pig stood still, more confused than frightened by the racket coming from the young boy. The pig just stared at Junior, not sure of its next move. The boy did not take any chances he continued yelling, hoping that he would eventually scare the pig away, but he was wrong. The wild pig grunted a big grunt and charged, Junior placed his feet firmly apart with the stick on his shoulder like a baseball bat waiting to strike the pig when it got close enough.
The pig was at full gallop, only a few feet away when Junior saw something out of the corner of his eye that distracted him. Whatever it was, was moving very fast. He thought for sure that it was going hit him. Junior fell onto his side and closed his eyes in fear. He lay on his side for only a few moments, but it seemed like an eternity. He could hear the pig squealing and a crunching sound, he had to open his eyes to see what was happening. The pig was lying on its side and what the boy saw paralyzed him with fear, terror shot through his heart. The pig was lying on its side and crouching over it was a large catlike animal. It looked like the large cat was ripping at the throat of the pig. The pig was probably dead even though its body was jerking. Junior legs felt like cement blocks, he was paralyzed with fear but his mind was racing as he tried to figure out what he should do next. He thought that he recognized the large cat as a Florida Panther. He was sure of it because he remembered seeing a story about it on one of the animal stations. Junior knew that this panther could easily kill him but he was hoping that it's fresh kill would keep it busy.
Junior slowly got up still holding the stick that he had picked up, he started to back away from the creature without taking his eyes off the grisly scene in front of him. Junior had only taken a few steps when the panther got up letting the pig fall out of his mouth. The big cat leveled it's eyes at Junior growled a long low growl. Junior stopped and stared at the panther while tightly griping the stick in his hand. He was prepared to fight off the panther if it decided to attack him but he sure hoped that it would not come to that. The panther looked down at it's fresh kill and then looked back up at the Junior, it's eyes glowed yellow in the bright moon light and blood dripped from it's mouth.
The boy slowly started to move away but the panther took a slow guarded step toward him. For every step Junior took to move away from the cat, it took a step toward him, all the while growling that low, deep menacing growl. Junior knew he did not have a chance if he ran. The panther would catch up to him in a second and attacked him from behind before he got ten feet away. So he decided to stand his ground and fight for his life. The panther made its move and sprung at him, as Junior swung with all his might and struck the panther across its skull while it was still in the air. The creature screamed in agony and it fell to the ground stunned, but for just a moment. Junior stood there waiting for the panther's second attack. The panther slowly got to it's feet and slowly moved back and forth in front of Junior, never taking it's yellow eyes off of him, slowly it moved, waiting for Junior to falter, waiting for him to weaken.
Junior stood there waiting, knowing that at any moment the cat would once again pounce at him. He could see the cat slowly, ever so slowly crawling toward him. The panther finally made it's move and lunged towards Junior but it never made it. Out of tall grass burst a large yellow dog, it looked like it was flying as it hit the panther broadside knocking it out of the air. Junior was taken totally by the surprise as he watched the dog growling and barking at the panther. He could not believe it. It was that dumb old lazy dog Bo, here in the grove, facing the angry panther....
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