Living With A Cougar

Oh now, stop it!  The title doesn't refer to ....um....er.......well, nevermind.

There was another mountain lion sighting in Arcata as reported in today's Times-Standard.  Oh, the mountain lions are out there, that's a given.  How often humans get to see them is another issue.  I have had the rare opportunity of seeing five mountain lions in the past 40 years.  I have been very lucky.    The first sighting was when I was around 12 years old.  This cat was drinking out of the river below our house in the middle of the day.  The second sighting occurred when I was working one summer for the U.S. Forest Service.  Through the middle of a cut-block cruised two...yes, two, teenage cougars side by side.  Seeing that was a rarity in itself.   The fourth cat ambled right in front of me as I was driving on Fickle Hill Road in Arcata and disappeared into the woods.  And, a couple of years ago, I saw what I thought was a large dog run across Highway 101 at night near Trinidad.  The last glimpse I got of the puma was of the long tail vanishing into a ravine.   My father, who worked in the woods his entire life, didn't get the chance to see even one of nature's most elusive creatures.

Yes, I have been lucky living with the cougar.    (Oh, stop it...!)


~Spence

Yet another Cougar sighting!