go cougs!

i am not a sports fan. but i love nature. on the first morning of this new year, i looked off my deck and saw some VERY large prints in the snow and thought 'who had the big dog here last night?' on further investigation we determined they might be cougar tracks, but the doubters in the group shot that idea down. the following evening i had my dad drop me off a the top of canal canyon and i walked across the base of the mountains and down to the ranch, about an hour total. while walking i thought, what if those were cougar tracks. what if he's tracking me? what would i do? as soon as i stepped in the door safe and sound my mom called asking if i was ok and telling me someone had found a freshly killed deer with its hind quarters and entrails eaten on the very land i had just walked across. obviously the work of a cougar. i told her about the prints and determined the large kitty had been sniffing round my door. today my friend visiting from new york and i skied up to the mouth of bill allred canyon, and there found FRESH cougar tracks coming down from the canyon. we're talking maybe an hour old . . . not crusty at all, still warm almost. fortunately i had come prepared with some bottle rockets to scare it off with if we met up with it . . . (pathetic i know, but i don't have a gun!). we didn't see it or more tracks, but its amazing/scary to know he is living so close. i hope i get to see him this winter!