The Cougar
More Screams Than A Horror Movie
My esteemed friend @ddschteinn and I have many digitally vociferous chats, and one of those threads discussed cougars. It was while talking about the death cats that I remembered an encounter with one that still makes my blood boil.
There have been a lot of encounters with mountain lions and yours truly over the years, as my Papa had a hundred head of cows. During calving season, which took place from late January through early March, cougars were known to lurk around the farm. It was an added bit of stress to that already stressful time of year.
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Many years we would come down from Alaska to visit Grandma and Papa during the winter months, as Alaskan winters are long, cold, and dark. In Southeast Alaska you have an added grey and dreary factor that drives some people quite literally mad. So an escape is a good thing. Plus, we were escaping to Grandma's house and there were baby calves everywhere!
Well, my grandparent's house was right next door to my uncle's house. To reach one house or the other you had to walk across a gazillion (from the Great Depression) year old bridge that spanned a creek that only ran when it rained enough to flood. My brother and I would alternate houses that we stayed at, and one night we decided to walk over to Unc's at about ten PM. It was pitch black out and so overcast that the air was thick as oil sludge soup. Bro and I stepped onto the chip seal covered bridge and paused as some rocks scattered down the side of the creek bank.
Then a scream of the likes that the directors of Saw have never heard emitted from over the side of the bridge. Rocks could be heard falling in a much more liberal frequency and I heard what sounded like scratching coming up our way.
We both took off, but after about fifty feet I just stopped in shock and angered awe. My brother had left me.
"You left me!" I stopped and screeched at his retreating form. So offended was I that I think it intimidated the cougar. My brother's cowardice caused me to radiate so much rage that I think I must have looked like Kat-le-stiltskin in that moment, for I just stood there and stamped my feet in offended sensibility anger.
We obviously made it down the hill to Unc's house, and boy did my brother receive an earful from yours truly about his abandonment of his older yet much smaller sister to the ravenous cougar. We both laugh about the incident now, but I can tell you, I have seen and heard a lot of Nature's terrifying things in this life, but nothing will quiver your insides or test the fortitude of your bladder like the scream of a mountain lion. Those murder cats have nothing but my respect and perpetual alertness whenever I am out and about in the shrubbery.
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There have been other instances where I have been stalked by wild cats, the hair on my neck rising and the forest going silent in their death-bringing presence. Unlike bears and wolves though, I have only ever stared into the great yellow eyes of big cats in captivity. I'm sure with as much as I wander around in the wild shrubbery that I will have a Kat meet cat moment eventually, I just hope in that event that I won't let the big creature get the upper ground on moi.
What about you all, have you ever come across a cougar or another large wild cat? I would love to hear about it!
Want to read more @Generikat posts?
Mountain lions supposedly disappeared from PA over a hundred years ago. Well around twenty years ago my mother insists one ran across the road in front of her only 5 miles or so from our restaurant. My brother and I were skeptical. Mom isn't always the most reliable witness, but she did grow up on a farm and she does know her animals.
Mom being herself had to tell everyone who came in about her sighting. One day some guys from the PA Game Commision, who have an office near her sighting, came in for lunch. She told them about it and they reassured her it couldn't have been a mountain lion, there are none left. They told her it was probably a bobcat. She didn't believe them and frankly neither did I. Plenty of bobcats around and she definitely knows the difference between a bobcat and a mountain lion.
Back then my brother worked at the local dam in the summer, it's run by the army corp of engineers. There's a park next to the dam and people are out there all summer long fishing, boating, hiking , etc. A few weeks after the incident he tells us the game commission posted a sign at the park telling people what to do if they encounter a mountain lion. HMMM. The plot thickens.
So the next time some game wardens come in to eat, mom asks them about the sign at the dam. They tell her they didn't put it up, it must have been the army and it's probably a requirement at all federal sites. One problem there, my brother was working for the feds and he knew they didn't post it. They already had signs up at the park about bears and other animals and all of those warnings are posted by the PA game commission.
One thing I know for sure, the game commission is usually full of shit. I have to side with mom on this one. As far as I know, no mountain lions were ever seen at the dam. Yet that sign wasn't posted without a reason. There had to be enough reported sightings and enough tangible evidence found to warrant the sign. You hear a lot of Bigfoot stories around here too, but I have yet to see a sign posted about what to do if you encounter one.
Not exactly an exciting story, but it's the only one I got. Hope you are enjoying your weekend Kat!
Probably my favorite line of yours ever, mainly because it hits so close to home.😆
I love how experts can tell you definitely that something is extinct and then all of a sudden it magically isn't, lol! Bobcats and Mountain Lions are not even remotely close in looks, and people tend to forget that those big cats will migrate FAR, not to mention Nature follows its own rules.
And that story was excellent! I know a Squatcher and have heard more Bigfoot lore than I ever have wanted to, so I get that there are some accounts and sightings of things out there that don't match up with the accepted norms, but I do also find it interesting that the sign just showed up for supposed bureaucratic reasons.
Ah Chops, I am sorry my reply is all over the place. There was an impromptu skeet shoot at my place last night. I got to plink off a few rounds out of a beautiful over and under 12 gauge, but instead spent most of last night BBQing about a million sausages and hot dogs for the herd. My composition skills are a bit fuzzy.
The weekend was great! Hope yours was too:)
Ah, the magnificent and deadly puma! How I love and respect her. I did have one run in with a cat while hiking with my son and our dog. The dog went into a drainage and started barking. I heard some grunting noises and called out, thinking a homeless man had camped in there, but nope. The dog came flying back out, and loud cougar chuffing noises started. My son and I looked at one another, and he bolted down the trail. I backed my way down the trail so as not to trigger the chasing instinct, and to try and use the get big and stare her down tactic. However, she didn't come after us, thank God!!!
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LOL! Your son pulled a "my brother"😆 Not that I blame him at all!
I'm so glad that lovely lady decided to not pursue you, that was very obliging of her, and you were seriously amazing to keep your wits about you enough to not bolt:)
I'm pretty sure the 'run away' instinct is stronger than just about anything. You can tell yourself all you want in planning, but it sure kicks in when the chips are flying.
Oh yes he did. There's a saying about running away from apex predators: You don't have to run the fastest, you just have to run faster than the slowest guy.
Lore tells that you're supposed to fight back if a cat attacks because they freak out when you do. They like soft targets and surprise ambushes.
Or else you can try a meme I saw that suggested petting them the wrong way. Ymmv haha!
I am very conscious about the spoor when I hike, and I had seen mother and baby cougar prints the previous year right by there. Long may they rule the foothills.
Much love to you and yours
Cougars scream? I thought they roared. 😮
They can purr and meow, but their usual vocalization is definitely more of a screaming/snarling sound. It is weird. Think of the strange sounds housecats make when they hiss and growl, but very much amplified, and you might get close.
@jacobtothes's answer summed it up, it is much more of a scream than a roar, and if you hear it near you it will make you want to evacuate your bowels, lol!
Yikes ... I have never encountered a cougar in the wild and hope to keep it that way. Although, they are not far off in our mountains and I may have been spied a time or two without my knowledge. One of the reasons I don't take my son out to the hills is that if they are going to be a problem they go for the little folks and pets.
We also have a lot of bears about. I saw one of them from a classroom window back in my teaching days. That was exciting. The whole school was put on lock down until the all clear of bears signal was given.
I have to tell you though, Kat ... in you against a cougar, my money would be on you:):):)
You are so right to be concerned about you little one and pets. When my kids were little I was a bit more nervous for them, even though we had an army of animal protection, lol. One time our local cougar stole one of my precious little doelings. It jumped two five foot fences to do so. My dog brought back her remains, it was sad and a reminder of how things are regarding Nature.
I refuse to go into the woods without at least a rather sharp knife. It's funny that you mentioned the bears, that is an animal that I have had a ton of experience with, and have written about pretty extensively in my earlier blog posts. I'd rather tangle with a bear than a cat any day, of course with your karate skills and my lack of self-preservation we might be rather intimidating!
Did you teach in a rural school out in the remote corner of one of your provinces? I bet that bear lockdown was something!
No ... I was in a suburban neighbourhood ... North Vancouver, but it is cut right into the mountains and so bears are a frequent part of life. Generally they mean no harm but can do amazing harm if hungry or threatened. I think sticks are probably better than a knife when it comes to cougars and bear spray when it comes to bears. You want to keep them both at a distance and so bells or a horn are probably even better. A knife fight with a bear is not one I think I could win but maybe a staff fight with a cougar ... maybe ... I likes my chances better anyways. I think the only thing that might be able to stand up to a grizzly is a rhinoceros. That's it ... I need a pet rhino:):):)
Yikes. No big cats here that I know of. The big threat here would be a pack of coyotes. Seems they have no natural predators and are really growing in number as you can see by the sign from the bait shop this winter!
Wow! That's like the sign of a coyote apocalypse or something! We have something similar on one of our big lakes concerning an invasive fish species invasion, but nothing that pays out like that!
Our poor neighbors have lost 17 of their 18 chickens over the last 17 days to coyotes, one a night. I feel so bad for them. Our one next door neighbor that moved had a massive Airedale that was the major coyote deterrent round here, seems the chicken stealing crew got the moving memo, dang...
I have not encountered any wild cats. I think I would prefer to keep it that way unless I have my shotgun close to hand.
My closest encounter with a bear was many years ago as I was driving home late one night. My thought process was something like this:
What is that strange dark shape?
That is one huge dog running about late at night.
Why is it running ahead of my car so oddly?
Oh. That's a black bear.
And of course there are the usual close encounters of the moose kind. I have had two near-misses while driving, and I was stared down by a mama moose while her calf pawed at grass clippings I had recently piled up. I would prefer they get no closer than that.
HUGE DOG! LOL LOL LOL!
Awe, you know my affinity for moose, especially near my hay shed. I'm glad they spared you though, death by stomping is not a way I would want to go...
At 1 am, the mind can be slow to register things that unusual.
STOP1st one is the best one!!
its too good!!
i love cat so it is simple like & upvote your post.thank you for shering.
Vaya que gatitos tan bonitos, por eso son mi animal favorito <3