Matilda Jacks’

yellow irises

There was cats everywhere. Most farmers just let them run wild. Gave them some sour milk or table scraps, but the dog mostly got those. So some places had a lot of cats until the distemper come along and killed a bunch of them. Then they just started building up again, kittens everywhere.

People said Matilda Jacks’ cats was special cats. For one thing they was big. Not just long legged like some toms you see. These was almost dog sized some of them. With thick tales and mostly no stripes. Like them mountain lions.

And their eyes. The Jack’s house was on the way to town across the road from the cemetery. One side was tomb stones and the other was that cutbank people would walk thru the cemetery to avoid at night. They said you could see the eyes of them cats glowing in the dark. Yellow eyes.

The same people, walking by in the day time, could easily see that them eyes was just Matilda Jacks’ yellow irises on that cutbank. They may have been brightest in May sunshine, but people said they was there all year round after dark.