I KNOW WHAT I SAW, AND I SAW A…..

COUGAR!!

Yep…..a cougar in the back field. No, it wasn’t a bobcat.  It wasn’t a gigantic feral kitty cat. The animal I saw was a cougar, regardless of naturalists’ consensus that cougars don’t inhabit Ohio (especially southeastern OH) anymore.

Here’s the lowdown:

On Wednesday, June 2, 2021, the corgis and I took a long afternoon walk around the back field to look at birds. As we entered the bottom side of the field, I could see a pair of red-tailed hawks perched in a tree across the fence in the neighbor’s field. I watched the regal pair as they surveyed their surroundings for an easy catch. I had my binoculars on them until we reached the turn in the back of the field that leads into the woods. Mac and MerryBelle were about 15 feet ahead of me, sniffing in her grass for scat piles to roll in and waiting for me to give them the OK to go back into the woods.

As I lowered my binocs, I caught movement in the corner of my eye coming out of the overgrown brush along the fence line, and out jumped a big cat. It was obviously surprised to see me, and I was definitely surprised to see it.  The moment was one in which time stood still: I remember telling myself to take close mental notes, for I was face to face with an animal I had never seen in the wild.

Now, I’ve seen bobcats in captivity and in the wild around the farm. This was not a bobcat - too big, no markings of a bobcat, not a bobcat facial structure. This cat was large, much larger than a bobcat. It had very, very faint spots on its face, as if it were a juvenile.

In a split second - maybe a total of 5 seconds- of a face-to-face encounter, the cat turned and jumped back into the brush. When it did, I was able to see the full side of its body - an elongated torso, some very, very dim spots - however, the telling feature that remains crystal clear in my mind was the long tail with a dark tip. 

I couldn’t get to my phone in my pocket to get a photo….time moved too quickly. From many times in the woods with Zeb, I distinctly remember hearing his voice in my mind, telling me “to watch, watch carefully…tell yourself over what you saw…tell yourself over and over again while your memory’s fresh…”

Mac and MerryBelle had their backs to the cougar when it jumped from the brush.  In retrospect, I can see that it could easily have thought Mac was tasty prey since he’s white from behind and stands close to the ground, similar at a distance to a rabbit. It pounced from the brush, stopping abruptly when it saw me. One more pounce, and Mac could have been fighting off one whopper of a cat. My only weapon would have been my binoculars! The corgis missed the encounter completely since they were searching for some stinky stuff to roll in.

This is the exact animal I saw….maybe just a tad smaller and likely, younger. (Internet image)

But there’s more!

Once I got my breath after the cat bolted back in the brush, the corgis and I turned the corner and started (rather expeditiously) up the fence line path home. We hadn’t gone 5 yards when I noticed a pile of fresh, steaming scat in the middle of the path. Whatever had left his couple of elongated turds had done its business recently, that was for sure. I photographed it and hightailed home, corgis panting behind me.

Two people with great knowledge of the animal world have suggested these turds look like coyote scat. I’ve done a lot of reading about cougar scat, and the overriding consensus is that cougar poop greatly resembles coyote scat in many ways, but with a more definitive “pinched” beginning and/or end.  I am inclined to think the cougar had taken a very recent dump, jumped back in the brush, realized something was approaching, crouched and pounced when it saw the dogs.

Fast forward to getting back to the house: I immediately messaged Julie Zickefoose and told her what had happened. She didn’t discount what I recounted, thank goodness. Her immediate response was to go “collect the shit!”

With two gallon zip-loc bags and my trusty trowel, I took off to the back field again. As I was scooping the “prize” into my bag, I could hear a low, threatening growl from the brush at the entrance to the woods. I’ve heard that angry, warning of “GET AWAY” sort of growl many a time from the cats here at the farm…..definitely feline, definitely a “mind your own business,” “don’t cross the line” sort of sound. So, again, I skedaddled back up to house and stuck the double-bagged elongated turds in the freezer.

(At the risk of turning off those reading,I will confess that many strange items have been stored in our freezer over the years- birds that have flown into the window, cats that have died in the middle of winter, a large coot that Molly, one of our first corgis, brought home, a large hawk I picked up on the roadside. My dad and Uncle Frank would have been proud that I took the time to observe and study. My mom would not have permitted such a sample in her freezer. )

Julie contacted a friend of hers who is a scat specialist, I believe, to see if she would be interested in analyzing the scat. We’ve yet to hear from her. I also contacted Jim McCormac, a respected naturalist in. Columbus who concurred with others said about the unlikelihood of a cougar in the wild in my area. He suggested it was possibly an escapee from some “nutcase” (my description) who kept wild animals. Maybe he’s correct since there aren’t confirmed cases of cougar sightings in SE Ohio recorded.

I don’t know exactly how to proceed, but it occurs to me that perhaps I could contact the naturalist at Grandfather Mountain back home in NC to see if he/she would examine the solidly frozen scat in my freezer to confirm (or not) that the turds are from a cougar. The conservancy there has introduced cougars back in to the wild there and keeps track of their movements.  I would really, really like a confirmation, but if I never get it, it won’t matter because…..

I know what I saw on that evening walk around the back field, and I saw a COUGAR !