Bacon, Beans And Big Cats Poem by Cowboy Ron Williams

The Cowboy Life is hard, especially on the trail.
I don't really mind bein' bowlegged,
but nobody ever thinks about how much
a cowboy's legs hurt to git that way.

Sleepin' on the ground is one of the hard parts,
but when yore plum wore out from ridin' all day,
a thin blanket is all ya need under ya,
and a saddle ain't too bad fer a pillow.

Fer me, the hardest part about life on the trail
is the diet. Almost every day, it's nothin' but
bacon and beans, with hardly ever any
meat or fruit to break up the monotony.

We was drivin' a herd once from Nevada
up to Wyoming and was goin' through a high
mountain pass when a cougar done leaped
out of a tree and killed one of our steers!

I guess he was real hungry, ‘cause he didn't pay
us cowboys no mind, but dragged the steer off the
trail a little ways and started to eat it right there!
Well, old Slim up with his thirty-thirty and blasted

that big cat right through the neck! Since our steer
was already dead, the boys butchered him up and
that night we didn't eat no bacon and beans! We had
all the beef we could eat, and something new as well.

We skinned the hide off that cat and butchered him
up, too. You want to know somethin'? That cat
tasted every bit as good as that steer (some liked it better) !
Those two critters fed us boys for several days.

If you're tired of what you eat
and you want something new,
just find a mountain lion
and put him in a stew!