West Texas Boy Adventure

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Reading @RasmaSandra's post about "The Interesting Ringtail" reminded me of a tale from growing up in Texas. During the school year, I lived with my mother and two grown sisters in San Antonio, but most summers I would head to a little town west of Abilene called Merkel, home to about 2000 souls including my dad, who ran his own auto repair and machine shop there. I sort of ran wild all summer, with BB guns, 22 caliber rifles, bicycles and fishing in creeks and stocked cattle tanks. To say it was hot is an understatement. There was seldom a day under 100 degrees F (37.7 C). My friend there was a wild kid named Jimmy Jenkins. He instigated many adventures. I think we were about 14 fir this one. We were hunting maybe 15 miles from town in a hilly area with a lot of boulders. Jimmy spotted one of those Ringtails (they called them Ringtail cats) that @RasmaSandra wrote about run under a huge boulder. He got me to poke a stick under the front, while he went around to the other side. I was a scared city boy for certain, thinking that this little wild animal might come tearing out and attack me. But, instead, he backed up to the exit hole to escape my stick. There came that long ring tail sticking out. Crazy Jimmy Jenkins grabbed the tail and pulled him out, with the poor animal snarling and growling angrily. He did not shoot the "cat" but put it in a tow sack in the trunk of his car. We drove back to town and as I recall Jimmy showed off the poor thing some, but then it was decided we would take him back to his home that evening. We drove back out there and, again, I was thinking this animal might be angry enough to attack us, but Jimmy laid the tow sack down pointing toward the rocky area. We stood back quietly and out came that Ringtail, interested only in his freedom. It was almost dark as he ran for his lair in the boulder. I know this seems a bit cruel, but there was more than one adventure like that in the wilds of west Texas.