"Ofelia Catrina Sanchez," Manolo said through his teeth, "I am not letting you keep that thing in our house."

"Then I'll keep her somewhere else," his daughter answered.

"You know what I meant!"

They were arguing over the small, fuzzy lump that Ofelia was carefully keeping in her lap as she sat on the parlor sofa. One might have thought it to be an ordinary kitten, until they noticed the telltale dark spots. Ofelia was cradling it in her arms, while her father was looking at it as though he'd like to throw it out the window.

Manolo to his wife for assistance, but there he found only a look of mutual frustration. "See? She isn't listening."

"Mija," Maria said, "we're worried it could be another trap."

"It's not. She isn't one of those jaguars, I can tell. I'd have felt it if she was," Ofelia added, tapping her temple.

"Why do you keep calling it a she?" Manolo asked.

"She's a girl jaguar, Papa."

"Look, where'd you even find it?" said Maria.

"The graveyard. She was crying next to Abuelo and Abuela's grave and we didn't see her mama anywhere. Vin says she's a runt and that's why she's so small. She might die if I don't help her."

"Then let it," Manolo muttered.

Maria saw her daughter's horror-stricken face and instantly started pulling Manolo towards the kitchen. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Don't tell me you're actually on her side here!" Manolo said as she shut the door to the parlor.

"Believe me, I'm not," she told him. "I want to get rid of it just as much as you do. But she's just as stubborn as you are. You can't just tell her no and expect her to go along with it, Manolo. You should know that!"

"But over this…" He shook his head. "She smart. She'll come to her senses sooner or later." He reopened the kitchen door. "Mija, we - "

But Ofelia was gone. Her parents heard the sound of her shoes clicking along the upstairs hall, quickly followed by that of the lock on her bedroom door.

Maria came up beside Manolo with her arms crossed and her best 'See what you've done?' look on her face. "Well?"

He sighed. "Alright…alright. I'll leave her alone for a while. But tomorrow. Tomorrow it goes out."

It did not go out the next day, or even the next week.

"You think I don't know what you're up to," Manolo said. "You think you can fool all of us."

The jaguar cub was curled up in a basket on the other side of the parlor. It was sleeping at the moment, full of the milk Ofelia had been dutifully giving it. At the sound of his voice it yawned, wiggled its ears and sat up to stare at him with large dark eyes.

Manolo glared back at it. "I don't care how much my daughter likes you, the second I catch you trying to hurt her - "

"Papa, what are you doing?"

He looked to see Ofelia watching him from the stair landing. "Ah…nothing, mija."

"Papa," she pleaded as she finished descending the stairs, "please don't be mean to Canela."

"I was just…wait, what did you call it?"

"Canela. That's her name. Look, she even knows it already!"

Sure enough, the cub had crawled out of the basket and scurried over to Ofelia upon hearing her voice. The girl laughed and reached down to scratch her friend's ears.

"I don't like that you've named it," Manolo said.

"Why not? She needs one just like the rest of us."

"Are you alright?" he continued. "Have you noticed anything strange happening lately…?"

"No, Papa," Ofelia answered, her voice firm.

"Are you sure?"

She picked up Canela and looked her father square in the eye. "Nothing," she said, and she went back upstairs, leaving Manolo to grumble to himself.

The weeks passed, and eventually Manolo began to wonder if he was the only sane person left in San Angel. Everyone else had seemed to stop noticing the jaguar, and if they did, they had stopped reacting with fear. The creature had grown larger and more bright-eyed, and now it trotted at Ofelia's side wherever she went. Ofelia was equally devoted, brushing its fur and making sure it was fed. A few of the townspeople still cleared out of the way when they saw the jaguar coming, but most had decided to regard it as just another oddity. A few even appeared to look on it fondly, greeting it with pats on the head. Chuy allowed it to eat next to him. Even Maria was throwing fewer glares in its direction; Manolo made sure he threw a few extra to keep things even, at least when Ofelia wasn't looking.

That was the truly baffling part of it all. Surely Ofelia understood that this was a matter of her own safety - there was no way she couldn't, after what she'd been through. He knew she still had nightmares about it sometimes, having seen her tired eyes the morning afterwards. Then why on earth had she looked at the creature which had come so close to destroying her and decided that it needed her help?

He hadn't been expecting an answer, but it came to him on a quiet summer's evening in the garden. He was sitting in the shade, tuning his guitar. Ofelia was on the ground reading, with the jaguar dozing in her lap. Every now and then she glanced at Alejo, who was playing with his toys a few feet away. Manolo did so as well, but eventually he found himself filtering out the noises around him as he worked on the guitar.

A high-pitched growl pulled him back into the present, and his head shot up. The jaguar had climbed out of Ofelia's lap and was now crouching close to the ground, its ears lying back and its tail twitching. It was glaring at Alejo, or so it seemed.

"Canela, what's wrong?" said Ofelia.

Before she or Manolo could move, the jaguar bared its teeth and pounced. But it flew past Alejo, landing instead on a small black creature writhing in the grass.

Ofelia gasped and pulled her frightened brother away from the reach of the snake, which was still trying to snap its jaws at him. Manolo leapt up from his seat and scooped a handful of rocks from the dirt. "Get out of the way!" he shouted to the children, taking aim at the battle which had ensued.

Ofelia saw what he was planning to do. "Stop, you'll hurt Canela!"

"So?"

"We would have been too late without her!"

By now the jaguar had managed to bat the snake several feet across the yard; the intruder righted itself and slithered away in disgrace. Remaining where it was, the jaguar sniffed the ground as though making sure all was now safe. When satisfied that this was so, it relaxed, turned around and started trotting towards Alejo.

"No," Manolo snapped, reaching to grab his son.

Ofelia stopped his hand. "She might have saved his life, Papa. She just wants to check on him."

Canela sat down next to the crying baby, smelled him and began to gently nudge his face with her head. Alejo quieted down, sensing as his companion had that the danger had now passed. This seemed to please Canela, who returned to Ofelia's side and happily received a vigorous scratching between the ears.

Manolo backed away, thinking of what he didn't want to admit. Ofelia was right - they would have been too late without her.

"Mija?" Manolo whispered, knocking on his daughter's bedroom door. "Are you awake?" When he received no answer, he gently pushed it open and stepped inside.

The candle he held aloft cast a dim light around the room. Ofelia was lying still in her bed, her glasses still on her face and an open book under one arm. Under her other arm, Canela was curled up and snoring. The jaguar stirred and opened her eyes as Manolo approached.

"Easy," he said. "I'm not here to hurt you."

In the bending shadows, Canela seemed to frown at him. But she closed her eyes and went back to sleep nonetheless, satisfied that this was no dangerous intruder.

Manolo set down the candle, then sat on the side of Ofelia's bed, removed her glasses and placed them on the bedside table. "I'll never understand why you decided to keep this friend of yours around, Ofelia," he said. "But I'm glad that you have."

He was about to stand up when Ofelia suddenly opened her eyes. "Papa?" she asked.

"Yes, mija?"

"You remember telling me about when you had to ask the bulls to forgive you?"

"…Of course."

"I had to forgive the jaguars for what happened, so it couldn't hurt me anymore. That was why I found Canela."

"…I see." Manolo left without another word, so his daughter wouldn't hear him choking up.

The two of them never discussed the matter after that night. But Manolo no longer avoided Canela, nor did he object to the creature's presence. In fact, on very rare occasions, she might even be found stretched out in his lap.