Monday, June 20, 2011

Cougars Just Wanna Have Fun


Cougar / Puma / Mountain Lion / Panther (Puma ...                                                          Image via Wikipedia


Are there cougars in Pelham?
Ha!

If you google that question you will find out that not only are there cougars in Pelham, there are cougars everywhere.

 And they are all looking for a date.

It used to be that you only had to worry about cougars jumping on your back and ripping your jugular open.

Now they want a bit of fun first.


I was walking on one of the trails in the Short Hills Provincial Park yesterday.

The Park is made up of many short, steep forested hills that were gouged out during the last ice age.  

 Flynn the dog was off her leash and trotting along in front of me.


I stopped when I saw something streak down one of the hills and disappear into the bush on my left. 

Short Hills is normally populated by white-tailed deer and coyotes.

This was different.

From a distance of maybe a hundred feet, the animal appeared about the height of an Irish wolfhound but sleeker and heavier.

Its speed was astonishing.

I have never seen an animal move that fast and my impression was that I had seen a dark shadowy premonition, a phantom, something not real, perhaps a Dean Koontz character that had escaped from one of his books.

It was an unnerving experience.

A twig snapped as Flynn and I stood there.

I did a full turn but we were alone in the forest.
 

Now that I have read about cougars, I wonder if I should have looked up into the trees.
Eek.


Some people believe there is enough evidence to prove that cougars have returned to southern Ontario.

That is good news.


 But, jeesh, I hope their dinner dates all order the venison.




Enhanced by Zemanta

2 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Be careful, Francie! A cougar killed a woman who was hiking in Banff a couple of years ago.

The Dancing Crone said...

I am willing to only walk in the park when there are other people around from now on, which is too bad because I love the solitude, but I don't want someone to have to shoot the cougar (if that's what it is), because I was foolish.