It licked me with its big wet, slimy pink tongue and it was purring. I opened my eyes to look at the creature again.

"You're a cat…" I looked at it. It was a cat yes but no ordinary house cat. It was a big black panther. I slowly stuck my hand out so it could sniff it; it was a natural thing to do! It did then licked my hand as well. "Are you guys usually in the mountains? I always thought you were jungle cats." They were, I was just talking it. I was wondering what it was doing out here. Then I noticed it had a collar around its neck. Slowly I looked at the tab hanging from it. "You're a run away!" The cat was from a zoo somewhere in Vancouver. It must have escaped and traveled up into the mountains.

Suddenly it yawned. I got a good smell of it's breath again, unfortunately but I got a good look at it's teeth, which weren't really that sharp at all, but could still probably rip an arm or leg off. "Are you male or female?" I asked, I didn't want to really look. I'd let Nick do that later.

"The guys…" I laughed. Both animals looked at my like I had lost it, "What's Kevin gonna say when I bring you back to the shelter? First Nick brings a wolf now Brian brings a panther. What's next? AJ bringing an elephant?"

I scratched behind its left ear and it began to pant. Then I continued to gather berries. I kept thinking of how I'd break the news to the guys that I had a friend now. Common Brian, you can't bring that thing back to camp! Kevin'll kill you! I said to myself. But then another idea came into my head. If this cat knew how to hunt it could easily kill a deer.

"Okay, I think I got enough." I finally stood up. My teeth were chattering and I was colder than I had ever been before. I picked up the heavy load of berries and we stumbled back to camp.

When we reached the camp I saw Nick outside doing something with the fishing rod. He had been out fishing and was now taking the fish off the hook and putting them in the storage place. I could see the wound on his back from the branch and the deep cut on the back of his neck from hitting his head. They both looked gross from where I stood.

I heard a low growl come from beside me; I looked down to see the panther in a stalking position. I followed its gaze and it was looking straight at Nick!

"Nick! Watch out!" I yelled but I was too late.

Smelling the fish on Nick the panther took off just at the same moment my friend turned around.

"Ahh! Oh my God! Help!" Nick cried as the panther pounced on him and pinned him to the snowy ground. Nick didn't even have a shirt on. "Please don't eat me!" Nick pleaded as if the cat could understand him. Cloud ran up to Nick and the cat and started barking.

"What's going on?" Kevin's voice boomed as the shelter door opened.

"Help!" Nick sobbed. I raced over to him and the panther. The cat was licking the fish smell off his hands but Nick was in a panicked state and he didn't notice.

I pushed the cat off him and pulled him to a sitting position. He was freaked out of his mind! "Nick! Nick look at me!" I practically had to yell into his ear. He looked at the monster that had attacked him wide eyed. "Hey, you're okay!" I said, wiping the tears from his face.

"Where'd that thing come from?" Kevin asked, looking at the cat.

"It found me when I was gathering berries." I said, helping Nick to his feet. He quickly moved behind Kevin, still keeping his eye on the panther.

"Why'd you bring it back?" Howie asked.

"It's friendly." I said.

"It attacked Nick!" AJ said. Nick still couldn't speak.

"It smelled the fish!" I said. "It was only licking Nick's hands!" I looked back at the cat who was lying in the snow, it's tail was swishing side to side and it stared off into space, purring loudly.

Kevin glared at the cat.

"Look, Nick, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was going to do that. But Kevin, think about it. It could be a weapon! It could easily kill a deer if it wanted to!" I said.

Kevin didn't say anything or change his expression as he looked at the cat. Then finally he shrugged, "Great. First Nick brings a wolf now Brian brings a panther. What's next? AJ bringing an elephant?" Don't I know my cousin?

"Where are we gonna keep this if it stays?" Kevin asked, looking at me sternly, "I don't think Nick would be too pleased to have it stay in the shelter with us."

"Common, Nick's fine. It won't hurt anyone or anything." I said.

Kevin just shook his head. Nick made this funny sound and looked at the cat like it had just pounced on him again.

"Common Nicky." AJ put his arms around Nick's shoulders and pulled him back into the shelter.

"There's not enough room in there anyway." Howie observed.

"Fine, we can build a smaller shelter for it." I said.

"Geez, Brian." Kevin rolled his eyes, "You're almost as bad as Nick was with Cloud." He hissed as he and Howie went back into the shelter.

I shrugged, I probably was being a pest but I had a feeling about this cat. It could really be the solution to all of our problems…except for Nick's problems.

I started to gather wood to built another shelter. AJ came out to help. "Might as well, I'm bored as hell in there." He said, "Besides, I kinda think you're on to something." He said as he helped me drag some long branches and tree trunks from the wood supply.

"Really?" I asked as we passed the hole that we all remembered so well.

"Yeah. I mean Kevin told us about the rock and everything but this cat may be able to help us." He said, "By the way, I think it's a girl."

"How'd you figure that?" I asked.

"How else to you figure something like that out?" He looked at me over top of his sunglasses; yeah he actually kept the sunglasses. Though they were a bit scratched up.

"Oh." I said.

It was about 10:30 that night when we had finished the rough part of it. We had the sticks and everything made into a structure and it was tied securely.

I still didn't have a name for her but I'd figure something out later.

"Tyke's gonna be jealous when you get home." AJ laughed as he covered the holes up with mud we had brought up from the bank of the river.

I shrugged, "It's not like I'll be able to keep her when we get home anyway." I said as we finished the last part of it. I yawned, "We'll finished in the morning." I said.

"Good idea. Here girl!" AJ called to the cat who was lying in the snow watching us. She came over and trotted into the newly made shelter already claiming it as hers. I smiled. "We should make an add on to the one we have. I mean they're right beside each other all we'd have to do is tear down the two walls, then cover this hole up." AJ said.

"Yeah but…isn't that where Nick sleeps?" I pointed to the part where the two walls met.

AJ seemed to think, "I guess it is…we'd better not tell him that it's right beside him."

"Good idea." I nodded, "Night girl." I called as we went into the shelter. Cloud had also been watching us and he followed us into the shelter.

"You guys done?" Howie asked as we sat down and huddled near the fire.

"Yep." I said, "We'll finish in the morning." I said as I rubbed my hands together.

"Hey, we should build an add on, ya know. Then we'd have more room in here and the panther would be able to enter either shelter." AJ said.

Nick suddenly got up and stormed out.

"Maybe we shouldn't have mentioned that yet…" I looked at AJ.

Suddenly we heard a scream again.