Some things I've known, or at least thought about, without proof. One is the idea that there are big, mean, hungry mountain lions living in the hills above my house. I've heard rumors, read reports and gone along secure in the knowledge that seeing one was probably not something that I would ever do.

A couple of weeks back, on a bright Sunday morning, I found out how wrong I've been. I was with the boys (Champ, my 4 year old yellow lab) and Bomsa (my 7 year old Norwegian Elkhound) taking our usual walk. We rounded a corner to the sound of barking hounds. A man walked toward me. I asked if those were his dogs barking. Yes. He had jumped a young mountain lion just off the path ahead. Just off my path. He'd been tracking three young lions with their full grown mother. He'd watch magpies circling and found a deer kill. The lions had been working the kill for a couple of days.

My new friend gave me his name. Bud. He raises and trains Walker hounds. Tracking cougars is a winter activity that he enjoys and that he does all through northern and central Utah. I learned a lot from Bud. He thinks that having hounds tree big cats is the best way to make them, the cats, weary of humans and keeps them up in the hills. Bud advised me to walk with my dogs, don't go out early in the morning or late and night, don't go hunting in camoflage and for sure, don't wear doe urine.

Well, now I know. Big, hungry, ferocious lions live in my hills. The cat in the tree by the path was young, no more than 40 pounds. And beautiful. Bud didn't have a permit to take the cougar. In fact, he was very emphatic that we should not be killing as many cougars as we have been over the past few years. Bud says that he's seen very few cougars over the past year and almost non in the Ogden and Cache districts.

Who knows what will happen to the these lions living in my hills. I hope our paths don't cross again. Still, it was cool........
10:13:08 PM    comment []