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furtechI recorded an animal lifer on the dogwalk tonight: Cougar.
Honestly, this is the one lifer I -never- wanted to see. Coyotes are annoying (and city coyotes are more mellow then their wilder relatives); raccoons are moderately dangerous (more so than coyotes, really); skunks are just a pain.
Cougars scare the crap out of me. None of the others are capable of killing an eighty-five pound male husky and then leaping over an 8-foot fence carrying it (which happened around here a few years ago). Cougars are seriously scary.
We were walking/hiking around midnight (too hot to walk during the days now) near a gated community, at the north end of the neighborhood near the foothills. The border collies had been restless this evening and at one point took off after something. I heard a new sound in the darkness (never a good thing), a brief kind of "Rackh!" sound. Something bounded down the hill and leap a drainage ditch: for a moment I saw it silhouetted against the night sky: a long, lean shape.
My first reaction was, "Huh." Too big for a cat; too big and too long for a bobcat; and that tail-- uh-oh. The long, fat tail. Fuck. Fortunately, it had to be a yearling: The dogs were able to startle it into running and from the brief sighting, it had the smaller size of a yearling. She took off and the dogs returned to me, good boys!
I'll say that getting back to the car was unnerving. I kept fearing the cougar would change her mind and circle around to snatch one of the dogs. We were still a mile away from the car.
I'm still freaked.
Honestly, this is the one lifer I -never- wanted to see. Coyotes are annoying (and city coyotes are more mellow then their wilder relatives); raccoons are moderately dangerous (more so than coyotes, really); skunks are just a pain.
Cougars scare the crap out of me. None of the others are capable of killing an eighty-five pound male husky and then leaping over an 8-foot fence carrying it (which happened around here a few years ago). Cougars are seriously scary.
We were walking/hiking around midnight (too hot to walk during the days now) near a gated community, at the north end of the neighborhood near the foothills. The border collies had been restless this evening and at one point took off after something. I heard a new sound in the darkness (never a good thing), a brief kind of "Rackh!" sound. Something bounded down the hill and leap a drainage ditch: for a moment I saw it silhouetted against the night sky: a long, lean shape.
My first reaction was, "Huh." Too big for a cat; too big and too long for a bobcat; and that tail-- uh-oh. The long, fat tail. Fuck. Fortunately, it had to be a yearling: The dogs were able to startle it into running and from the brief sighting, it had the smaller size of a yearling. She took off and the dogs returned to me, good boys!
I'll say that getting back to the car was unnerving. I kept fearing the cougar would change her mind and circle around to snatch one of the dogs. We were still a mile away from the car.
I'm still freaked.
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Date: 2015-08-06 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-06 09:32 pm (UTC)They even have t-shirts that say, "I'm a Cougar Mom!"
Still thinking of getting you one...Now for sure!
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Date: 2015-08-07 09:00 am (UTC)You might also remember that I've encountered them three times now, and I'm not very happy about them either. That includes the time I chased the one that took my kitty, thinking it was a coyote in the dark.. and stopped when I saw that long tail...
Growing up here, there were no threats from bears or mountain lions. They began to encroach starting with the fires in the early 80s in nearby forests, pushing them into our area. The bears are cool for the most part, but the mountain lions are at the top of the chain, and it's likely they could do anything given the chance. The psycho ones in Orange County are on record for attacking people in the trail areas. Luckily they haven't gone that far in the northern areas, but I'm still no longer near as comfortable taking a nap on the porch like we could easily do all those years ago...
Always carry a large hiking stick or some other protection, just in case.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-08 05:07 pm (UTC)Another thing that has led to more cougar incidents: California passed the no-hunting-cougar laws in 1990 and the population, particularly near bigger cities (eg, SoCal), have increased. I voted for that law (I'm very much against trophy hunting, esp. of apex predators). The mountain lion advocates have taken that even further (too far, IMO) and now cougars can't be killed unless posing an immediate threat-- animal control must re-locate the animal. This is idiotic, again IMO, because the cats are dispersing into urban areas because there are no suitable habitats nearby for them to occupy. Dropping a young lion off in a mature cougar's territory is a death sentence; dropping them elsewhere probably means death by starvation.
I'm going to carry my cane or shepherd's crook with me for the foreseeable future!
no subject
Date: 2015-08-20 03:23 pm (UTC)Might there be some kind of ultrasonic solution that would be irksome to cougars, but not the pups? (Perhaps cougars have a higher frequency range?) Or possibly something scent-based? Though if they're not put off by the smell of humans, I'm not sure what would give them pause for thought.. bears, maybe? Assuming they're familiar with that threat, of course.
Regardless, I'm very pleased to know you and the pups are all safe.