I saw the cougar. I swear. You can think I'm crazy or it was just a deer, but I am POSITIVE I saw it in the woods at Wyco.
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Last Thursday night, John, Jerry and I went for a 7-8 mile run. After the holidays, I was a little slower than usual. We were on our way back and the guys were 1/4 to 1/2 mile ahead of me. As I was running through the Archery Range towards the bridle trail, I saw eyes in the woods. It wasn't far off, maybe 30 yards. I shined my light on it and I saw the outline of a large cat, sitting.
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I've seen a lot of deer and coon in my day. The head was too low to be a deer and it had forward-set eyes. It was much too large to be a fox or a coon. And it didn't move. I yelled for John and kept moving without taking my light off it. John started yelling and clapping his hands. I saw it swing it's head around and it moved parallel with me into the woods. It was moving slow and smooth, but too far off to see anything but it's eyes. The way it moved was eerie.
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When I met John at a hill, I lost it. We took off and I had no problems keeping up with the guys. John said that when they came through the first time, there was a deer farther up the trail that didn't move. Even when they came close, it stayed still and was looking back toward my direction. He thought it was odd at the time. Was my story corroborated by a deer? Who knows. All I know is that cougar or not, it scared the crap out of me.
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If January 1st was any indication of what 2009 will be like, it should be an interesting year, to say the least.
4 comments:
More likely a Bobcat, there are plenty of them around here. While I don't dispute that there are cougar moving through the area they are about the same size as the deer around here.
You're probably right. I did some reading and there is a viable bobcat population in the area, only a few confirmed cougar sightings and not a breeding popultaion.
Either way, it was a big cat that scared the crap out of me!
Bobcat are pretty small (30 lbs), and avoid human contact. We've seen a lot of bobcat in the area...and they are easier to spot in the wintertime.
Believe me, the difference in size between a bobcat and a cougar is STUNNING. Just ask Jerry.
About there not being a "breeding population" of cougars: that's the storyline of all parks and wildlife departments, east of the Rockies. They like to hide their heads in the sand. With deer being so prolific in the area, it's only natural for predators to slowly move into this non-predation vacuum.
WOW....that would have scared me to death!
Be careful out there! ")
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