Myth of the Cougar

~ First Impressions ~

I could feel my brain cells dying off, one by one. As I lay motionless, I hear people chattering and having fun in the summer heat. At least they can feel the sun, I thought with remorse. The endless boredom consumed every moment of my life now and I hardly had the chance to change that. 

With a deep growl, I rolled to my paws and shook out my tawny fur. I glared up through the pane of glass separating me from the tourists. A group of teens passed, barely glancing at me, while sticky children pressed their noses against the glass, ignoring their parents' beckoning. I folded my ears flat against my head to block out their senseless noise and stalked to the rear of my stony enclosure. The only place I could lounge undisturbed was the bottom of the artificial mountain where a small cave had been carved beside a hatch. Just before disappearing underneath I turned to my audience and snarled. 

I sighed heavily and plopped on my side to wait out the last few hours until feeding time. Metal squeaking woke me from my cat-nap. I yawned and stretched all four limbs awake before opening my eyes. A face was pressed to the hatch. I sat up fully alert and stared her down. She wasn't my usual zookeeper who came to feed me. Who is she? What's she doing here?

The girl disappeared and I hurried to the hatch so I could press my own face against the bars. She set a fresh bowl of water near the pedestrian gate of the inner portion of my enclosure. Next, she set out a slab of meat and secured the door behind her when she left the cage. A few moments later the hatch slid along my cheek, allowing me into the cool room.

I stepped through warily and watched as the girl returned to retrieve the cart she used to carry the meat. She caught me staring and furrowed her brow. Her deep brown eyes looked dull and guarded as she stared straight back at me. They reminded me of the other animals in the zoo. She looked just as hopeless and caged as I was though she was on the preferred side of the fence. My heart reached out to this girl. She was just like me; going through the motions, day by day, hoping something would change but unable to make that change. I reached my meat and began biting bits of methodically, lowering my eyes.

"Well, I'm your new keeper since Cindy retired, so-" the young woman took a step back warily. "yeah. I hope you don't mind... Ack, I'm talking to a cat."

My jaw froze mid-chew with a bit of meat hanging out. Impossible. I lifted my gaze to stare at her, my ears tall on my head. Her voice . . . 

I can hear what she's saying?