Cougars

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As Sal and I were heading home after a hard (but short) day cannibalizing our old boat, Wasabi, we came across a gaggle of tourists at the end of the road.  There were six.  Five were women ‘of a certain age’ (meaning 55+).  One was quite attractive.  Sal was already schlepping stuff along the trail to the new (to us) boat ,Pumpkin, and I was coming down from the parking lot when they politely engaged me in some tourist-meets-local chit chat.  I’m usually good for a minute of charm-offensive (emphasis on the word offensive) and, as three of them were smiling a lot and regarding me as some kind of out-there, kinda-odd, hill-billy ‘character’, I was easily seduced. We chatted and had fun.

I think it was a somewhat unique encounter for them (and me) and it was actually flirting quite soon after the initial introductions and one woman was so attentive and animated that I found myself saying, “You should come out and stay one weekend.  Then you’d learn more about this lifestyle.”  (Yes, that was the attractive one.)  Of course, it was all said with a smidge of insincere, but polite, tone of double entendre and they all giggled at the hinted prospect.

Well, okay, it may have been gagging and choking but they maintained their smiles so I choose to interpret their guttural sounds as giggles.

I mentioned that Sal was at the boat . . .right?

Anyway, like all cougar encounters, this one was brief, exciting and I was left breath-taken at the beauty of nature in the wild.  I wish I’d had a camera.

My friend, D did. There she was . . . another attractive cougar…..just passing through on his side of the island.  Not even so much as a real encounter.  No flirting.  No giggles.  But he saw and experienced the beauty of the moment as well.

A few days later D. got the following photo:

 

15 thoughts on “Cougars”

  1. The cougar looks fit and well fed. Do you have a resident cougar on your island? Are you overwhelmed with those runty feral deer eating your veggies. On Mayne Island the deer make gardening challenging. Around here the cougars take targets of opportunity, including dogs, cats and pet rabbits. A couple of our rural schools often have cougar and bear sighting. So far no children have been taken.

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    • No one has actually COUNTED cougars…that would be pretty hard to do. But we are guessing two residents and maybe a couple of more transients now and then. The bears come and go. The wolves do, too, but they remain longer than do the bears. But the cougar sightings seem year ’round. NOT many but all-season.
      Our deer pop is good. Big. Healthy. But not over-run at all. In fact, they are hard to find as well as a rule. We really SHOULD go to Mayne, capture a few runts and introduce them to our neighbourhood.

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  2. Wow!
    Thats a pretty healthy cat !
    And it doesnt seem to terribly concerned with the photographer.
    How close was he to the cougar?

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    • That was MY first question, too. Not only was the cat not TOO concerned with the photographer, but neither was my friend too concerned about the cat! Or so it seemed…..”OH, no. That picture came from my trail camera up by the wood mill. I get a lot of night shots but never one in the middle of the day. No. I was NOT that close.”

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    • Sal said, “Thanks, John. How sweet!”.
      I said, “You’re not his mother!”
      “That’s not the point.”
      “But that IS the point!”
      She huffed. I scowled. Now we’re fighting. Thanks, John.^_^

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    • Hard to refuse a plea like that…… thanks….. been busy. Guests this weekend. Projects up the yin yang. The urge keeps presenting but mostly on politics…..and no one likes that. My run may be over. The numbers never came back. Malcolm Gladwell, I am not. I’ve got ravens, projects, self-destruction by way of trauma and blood loss and, of course, the odd quirky issue to go on about but I think that’s all getting stale in the nano, micro market niche I had. The exploits of the intrepid Sally are always good but she’s slowing down. Can’t get her up a pole or down a well to save my life. Quilting exploits seems to be what she wrote.

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  7. I’m interested in the decline of civility in politics and perhaps more broadly in society. Much of the political criticism seems hyperbolic with at most a tenuous connection to fair comment.

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  8. I didn’t know this definition of cougar until I posted a picture of one Wayne and John encountered in the bush. It was after John’s dog Bro. On a sad note, Bro went to sleep two weeks ago. He was an eighteen year old Black Lab. Not many live to that age. I’m sure he just wouldn’t give up because he wanted to stay with John, who is now beside himself. I wrote a tribute to Bro over on my blog. He was a wonderful dog. – Margy

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