Yet another fable.

The mountain lion and the wild turkey

Out in Montana, in the Yellowstone River breaks, in a rocky lair, a mountain lion curled up with her cub who pulled at her breast.  Although the mother lion’s breast hurt from the sharp teeth of her cub, she was patient.  This will pass, she thought, adjusting herself under the overhanging rocks.  She had been wary of rattlesnakes because the weather had been hot.  She said to her cub, “watch out for rattlers.”

She did not see a rattler.  Instead, several wild turkeys strutted below where she and her cub nestled.

“Are those rattlers, mama?” asked her cub.

“Those are turkeys, good to eat,” she answered.

“Can I eat one, mama?” asked her cub.

“Yes, once you are weaned from my breast,” answered the lion.

The cub decided to try his luck with one of the turkeys.  He waddled to the edge of the overhang and leapt, tumbled, really, into the void.  He landed hard on the rocks below, frightening a turkey.  Suddenly seeing the cub so dazed and disoriented, the turkey took courage and strutted up to him, pecking out his eyes.

Of course, the cub was blind.  But the cub’s mother didn’t know this and called to her son.  “Climb back up here.”   He simply blundered ahead into the rocks.  She bounded down to her cub and picked him up by the nape.  She and her cub returned to their lair in the rocks where he resumed nursing her breast as before.

I’m sure there’s a moral here for us:

Even if it doesn’t rattle, it can still peck your eyes out.