Toad Lake Blotter - Cougar!

So yesterday my neighbor, JB, informed me that there has been a cougar sighting in the area, more specifically, on Harland Olsen’s property, just across the road from me (I wouldn’t make these names up, now, and feel no need to change them because I cannot conceive of anyone from my neighborhood stumbling across this blog).

Normally I take JB’s stories with a grain of salt, seeing as he’s of the old local school, and takes neighborly gossip as truth and spreads it with the fervor of a sixth grade girl. As the cougar spotting followed hard on the heels of JB telling his buddy Deke that I write books (JB’s dream for me is to be featured by the Oprah Book Club), I take it with little or no importance. Especially since we’re sitting in his garage at a card table drinking Crown Royal and Pepsi out of insulated mugs. But after checking around a little, I am forced to admit that apparently this is the real deal, confirmed by the DNR. And I do know, from my former life as a museum director and giver of too many Rotary speeches, that cougars were once prevalent in this area, and are still occasionally spotted.

Later that evening I couldn’t help remembering this information as I stood on my deck, at 2 am, checking out the amazing stars, and suddenly heard crashing around down in the reeds at the lakeshore in front of our house. A water source that is almost a direct line from Harland Olsen’s property. A big crashing. This was not a deer, or a beaver, or any of the number of woodland critters that parade regularly through our yard to get to water every night. This was something big. I stood on the deck, squinting at the stars, trying to ignore the sounds, while my id screamed “Cougar! Fucking Cougar!” and sent adrenaline pounding through my veins in classic fight-or-flight reaction. I have to say, I was leaning heavily towards flight. But I played tough, standing on my deck, knowing that I was hidden by a massive lilac bush and standing about ten feet from my back door.

So, of course, when I got back inside (forcing my feet to move slowly, instead of skittering through the back door as every nerve was shrieking at me to do), I hit Wikipedia. According to their comforting article, and I quote, “Due to urbanization in the urban-wildland interface, pumas often come into contact with people, especially in areas with a large population of deer, their natural prey. They have also begun preying on pets, such as dogs and cats, and livestock, but have rarely turned to people as a source of food.” Gee, I feel so much better now.