Song of the Mockingbird: My Journey with Josefina

We pick flowers until our baskets are almost full. Then I hear a faint bleating from behind a stand of prickly bushes. It’s Sombrita playing, I think, and I pluck another flower. But it sounds different from her normal bleating, and I realize Josefina hears it, too. Josefina goes still, listening. Miguel is at the bottom of the slope, breaking up a large branch.

Josefina whispers that something is wrong. For an instant we stare at each other, wide eyed, then she whirls around and we run toward the bleating, pushing through the prickly bushes.

Suddenly, Josefina freezes. As I stagger to keep from falling, I see below us a huge tawny cat, only three feet from Sombrita. The little goat is backed against a boulder and hemmed in by bushes, trapped.

Josefina stifles a gasp. I press a hand to my mouth to keep from screaming and whisper to ask Josefina what we do.

Josefina’s face is desperate. I whisper that we should grab her, but Josefina says it’s too dangerous. Eyes never leaving the mountain lion, she bends down and scoops up a baseball-sized rock at her feet. The mountain lion glances at us, then fixes its eyes on Sombrita and crouches, ready to spring. We have to do something.