Odd acting mountain lion killed near my cousin's yard

[Okanagan]

My cousin D. has a house tucked in tall forest on the edge of a small Washington State town.  One noon last winter a mountain lion strolled down his driveway.  His grown daughter stepped out to take a picture of it.  The cougar stopped, looked at her, then reversed course and walked back into the forested ravine beside the house.  D had never seen a wild cougar in his 70 years of hunting, fishing and living there.  Cool sighting.

A half hour later the cat came back.  This time it strolled down their sloping lawn, climbed a big cedar tree till it was eye level with the living room, and lay down on a limb to nap with its tail hanging down.  Hmmm...


D has a rambunctious four year old grandson who plays in the yard every day.  The cougar had to go.  D would have shot it but they were just inside a no shooting zone and he didn't want hassle from zealous authorities nor greenies.  He phoned the game department.  A warden and a man with hounds came out and chivvied the cat from the tree.  It seemed merely annoyed at them for disturbing its sleep.  The hound man was concerned for his dogs so kept them on leash.  He and the warden chased the cat up the forested mountainside as fast as the men could run after the hounds.  They came back in 45 minutes and said that since they had scared the cat badly, it would not return.

Soon after, in early dusk, the cougar was back on the lawn.  D stepped out to see where it went and spotted it standing by the corner of his house. It ducked around the corner when it saw him looking at it.  And then D said that he could not believe how stupid he and his wife were.  At bedtime his wife let their two house-cats out to do their business.  A few minutes later she opened the door and called but only one cat came in.  The older cat, the family favorite, never returned.  D's wife went out with a flashlight, searching and calling but never saw it.  Early the next morning she found it.  Tracks in the snow showed that the cougar had chased and cornered the house-cat, cut off its head and left it.

They phoned the game department.  D is cordially acquainted with the local warden and told him that if he saw the cougar again he would shoot it.  The warden came out along with the hound man.  The hounds jumped the lion in the ravine beside the house, ran it a short distance and treed it.  The warden shot it.  A biologist told D that it appeared to be an 8 month old adolescent, and like humans, adolescent cougars do stupid things sometimes and no one knows why.

In my limited experience, when a cougar is hanging around it has a kill nearby on which it is feeding.  I told D that I wondered if it had killed a deer in the ravine.  He said that no one had found a kill but that no one had looked.  Who knows.  Most cougars that age that I've tracked have still been with their mother, so something may have happened to her.

[riverboss]

Very interesting story.
Sure make you wonder!

Sent from my Tank Xtreme 5.0 using Tapatalk

[JohnP]

Three types of lions to kill if around housing areas, the very young, the very old and those that are disabled, I'm sure that this is nothing that anybody on this site doesn't already know. 

We had a very similar situation when we lived on the mountain side.  Fortunately we are not in an area with "zealous authorities nor greenies" we would probably been run out of the neighborhood if I had not killed it.  I would also doubt the biologist that aged it at eight months, most kittens stay two years or more with mother. 

[Okanagan]

John, excellent post as usual.

Re the biologist:  a lot of the younger ones in WA State don't seem to know much about real animals in the wild.  I've been in on a few odd conversations and game checks with them.  And some really know their stuff.

[Okanagan]

Can anyone else see the pics or only the clock face thing?  In place of the photos I see a clock face and the words "3rd Party Hosting has been temporarily suspended."  Then it says to go to photobucket to unlock my account.  I go there and everything looks normal with no indication that my account is locked nor how to unlock it. 

Photobucket has been blitzing me with so many ads I can hardly get to my account anyway, trying to harass me into paying them to drop the ads.

I'm ready to use another photo site if anyone recommends one.  The only thing I do with photobucket is post pics on three internet hunting sites.

[slagmaker]

Well I could see the pics now it's the clock/meter thing.

[JohnP]

No pictures.

[FinsnFur]

Interesting post...but yah no pics.

[HuntnCarve]

I cannot post pictures anymore with Photobucket too?  All the photos that I've posted here have that "Clock" thing that Okanagan mentioned?  I too will need a new hosting site?  Any recommendations?

Dave

[Okanagan]

I cannot post pictures anymore with Photobucket too?  All the photos that I've posted here have that "Clock" thing that Okanagan mentioned?  I too will need a new hosting site?  Any recommendations?

Dave

This morning I researched and finally found out what is going on.  Photobucket changed their Terms Of Service within the past few days and now are charging a fee for what was free.  I have no idea why they don't just say so rather than put up that weird dial face with the words "3rd Party Hosting temporarily locked."   Researching complaints re Photobucket led me to read the fine print in their new TOS.

I don't know whether they thought they could harass me into paying or are computer people who do not know how to communicate in plain English, but either way, all they have achieved is to tick me off.   If I pay, I'll  now pay somebody else.   

I'm checking out new photo hosting sites but am a dinosaur at computer stuff.  Dave, you've met me, so I might as well admit that I'm merely a dinosaur.

[HuntnCarve]

Clyde, you are no more of a dinosaur on computers than I am.  I did open a Flickr account today.  It's a whole different set up and definitely out of my comfort zone.  But I think I can muddle through?  Meantime, I shot another hog today No. 9 for the year.  But cannot post any pictures. LOL!

Dave

[nastygunz]

http://tinypic.com

[Okanagan]

Flikr won't let me join, and after several tries to figure out an odd registration form, it said that my software needs to be updated to allow the registration to function correctly.  Wonder how to do that.      I should buy a new computer.

Nasty, thanks for the link.  TinyPic is owned by Photobucket and started running exactly the same ads.  May go there eventually but will look around first.  Am a little ticked at Photobucket for the sledgehammer without warning. 


In order top post a pic at a place like Fins and Fur, Photobucket charges $399 per year.  I checked and they have deleted all photos I've ever posted in the past.

[Okanagan]

OK, discovered that  I had Microsoft Edge on my computer and when I used that, Flickr let me register and upload two pics for practice.  I worked at it awhile reading how-to stuff on their help pages, and never did figure out how to post a photo.  I got far enough to post a link but not a photo and the link does not pull up a photo.  My brain is strained with this and I will stop for today. 

Next morning:  I attached a photo directly from my computer by using the "Attachments and other options" below the box where we compose a message.  It turned out small.   

[JohnP]

I'm also trying the "Attachments and other options", seems to work.....

[KySongDog]

Next morning:  I attached a photo directly from my computer by using the "Attachments and other options" below the box where we compose a message.  It turned out small.   

The pic is small in the post but if you click on it, it becomes big.