Jaguar – Onca
Onca The Prelude: The setting for today’s story is an old California Spanish Land Grant tract of land known as Rancho Guejito [wah-hee’-tah] in east San Diego County. I believe the actual incident related here occurred somewhere between the late 1940’s to mid 1950’s. The account was told to me by my father when I was a very young boy. My father heard the narrative directly from the rancher who actually experienced the event. The tale made a lasting impression on my youthful, fertile mind and I often thought what a great experience it would be to see a Jaguar in a truly wild setting. The seed of a dream was planted many years ago and it began with this story. The Narrative: A heavy brume blanketed the rolling topography hiding secrets within its murky mist. This was an often-recurring early morning manifestation that happens in the Engleman Oak forest and chaparral-laced place known as Rancho Guejito … and a cattleman on his steady steed came to pause while in search of the herd. During the respite the rancher adjusted the wide brim of his lofty-crowned hat and rearranged the oversized white kerchief masking the prodigious goiter bulging from his […]
