More Cougar Thoughts

I was just thinking of an incident which occurred here in my front yard a couple months ago. Thinking about the difference in the results if we had just found for real cougar tracks and markings in our own front yard. If we had proof a cougar had been within twenty-five feet of our front door.

A couple months ago, Hubby Honey went outside to check on things before closing down for the night. Yes, it was after dark. It was a winter night, but pretty calm. No wind, no snow flurries, no rain. Just chilly.

He had just walked past his truck, which is parked about twenty-five feet in front of our house. He said he saw two yellow eyes. Then was pounced on. Yes, he was scared, not having any idea what had just hit him. His reflex was to strike out with both arms and legs.

Once he had time to think, he realized it was a dog. Not one of our dogs, but just a dog. A very friendly, fairly young lab, somewhere between six and nine months old. Along with this young dog was a second dog. The first being a female, the second a male about a year old.

He brought them into the house, or maybe I should say, they came into the house. We had not seen either of them before. I called a neighbor to see if knew of anyone missing a couple young labs. No, but she would check around.
Before I could call another neighbor, we found a phone number on a tag on one of the dog’s collars. That was the first place we had looked for ID of the dogs, but the number hadn’t looked like a phone number. I’m glad Hubby Honey double checked the tag.

Hubby Honey called the number on the tag. The person who answered the phone could not believe it. His dogs had been found. He lived about ten miles from here and the dogs had been gone for a week.

The nights during the previous week had been in the negative digits. The dogs still looked fat and sleek. They drank a bunch of water, ate some dog food, and were fast asleep in the hallway when their two overjoyed owners arrived to get them.

This was a young couple. These dogs were their babies.

What a great reunion!

But can you imagine how there could have been a totally different end to this story if, just a few days earlier, there had been proof a cougar had actually been within twenty-five feet of our front door?