The Big Cat

I’ve ridden my bicycle alone on logging roads before and it usually hits me when I’m past the point of no return, “There might be cougars out here and they love to chase things that are moving fast.”

We’ve been on these same roads with the horses and I’ve heard suspicious sounds in the near by woods. There was one spot where the trees were clawed and the smell of cat must have been so strong that the horses freaked out every time we went near there.

Though I haven’t often seen big cat tracks in places I freequent, I do have a neighbor that used shrimp shells in his garden and saw a cougar rooting around one evening not too long ago. This is very close to where I live so I do have concerns.
Most people have never seen a cougar, and I can say that I’ve only seen one. I was driving on Lewis and Clark Road to Seaside one morning. If you remember the old windy road before they cut in the new one just passed the Main Line. The road wound upward and there was a big curve with a high embankment on both sides just before it started going down hill to the transfer station. It was at this curve where I saw a cougar jump from the high embankment to the center of the road and continuing it made one bound and jumped cleanly up the other embankment and then it was gone. Within the span of two seconds this cat covered fifty feet. I’ll never forget it and I hope I never see it again while in the open air.