shooting a man eating leopard

A tale from India

A winters evening and the sitting room fire was blazing, sparks lit up and danced across the sooty back of the fire.
The radio was quietly playing the latest hits from the 1940’s
The floor was strewn with animal skin rugs that mum and dad had brought back from India.
My favorite was the Himalayan brown bear skin, it had long warm fur and was so lovely to lie on and cuddle up to in front of the fire.
Beside me was the leopard skin complete with a stuffed head and open mouth and real teeth.
I loved to put my hand in its preserved mouth, pretend it was real, and might bite me.
These were the trophy’s dad had brought back from his 4 years in India in the mid 1930’s.
“How did you shoot the leopard dad”
“Years ago your mum and I were in India and there was a tea plantation in an area in the foot hills of the Himalayas and a leopard had been attacking the local people and had eaten some of the workers in the plantation.”
I listened in awe I was cuddling up to a real man eating leopard skin I was real glad he was dead as I placed my hand in its mouth and wondered what it would be like to be attacked by such a fierce looking animal.
Dad paused for a moment and continued,

“The local head man from the village came to me and asked me if I could help to get rid of this leopard as it was eating the villagers..
I had a 'Jeffery’s 333' big game hunting rifle and it was the most powerful rifle in the world then, the bullet would go straight through a hard wood power pole and drop an elephant with one shot”
Wow, I thought my dad a real big game hunter, and with the most powerful rifle in the world.
“No one else” continued dad,” had a gun that would kill a leopard as big as this so the head man asked me would I consider shooting it for them.
So, that day, the local people had built a platform in a tree near where the leopard was hunting and they supplied a goat for bait.
They tied the goat to the tree, and an assistant and I climbed up into the tree as the evening drew to a close.
Darkness fell quickly in the tropics and the biting insects were everywhere wanting some big game for them selves.
My assistant had a mosquito net for us and we settled down for the long wait.
In the early hours of the morning I was awakened by my assistant and gently he motioned for me to be ready with the gun.
The gun was equipped with a 5 cell torch the most powerful one you could buy.
The goat was starting to tug at its leash that tied it to the tree and it knew it was in great peril.
Suddenly from the dense undergrowth there was a mighty rush and at that instant the goat gave a plaintive bleat.
A tremendous growling sound and strangled bleating came from the bottom of the tree as the leopard pounced on the goat and with one mighty blow from its powerful paws it broke the neck of the hapless goat.
At this point I turned on the torch attached to the gun and pointed it at the commotion in the pitch darkness.
There was the huge leopard head down tail up facing away from me.
A perfect shot so I aimed carefully and fired. The bullet entered the base of the leopards spine and exited near its head shattering its back bone as it went..
The leopard died instantly.
My assistant was very excited and most relieved and said
“The sahib was a very good shot”
“The excitement over we climbed down from the tree and walked back to the village where a group of men with fire torches and armed with sticks went back into the forest to retrieve the prized leopard.
Some weeks later the skin and its stuffed head was delivered to us, and that is the skin you are laying on now”

I stroked the lovely fur of the leopard and felt the bullet holes at each end of the skin and thought wow my dads a real big game hunter.
“What about the brown bears skin dad”
“Another day son time for bed”
That night I dreamed of being a big game hunter myself.

so 70 years later my great grand son here is saying kitty kitty