There's been a young mountain lion prowling the residential neighborhood on a hill that is about 3 miles from my house. It's killed some chickens, ducks and cats...and Fish and Game has been trying to live trap it. Well, it moved off what is known as 'The Bar' or 'Bar Hill' where it's mostly city limits residential homes...and is now prowling around my area which is about a mile outside of city limits.
I'm just glad my dogs were inside...and wow...did they let me know something was out there!
My cat, Song, took off down the hall and hid in my bedroom and both Jaya and AU were walking stiff legged, and with hackles raised and growling! I've had Jaya for 6 years now, and I think I've only heard her growl a few times and those were more like short, startled/scared growls...but she didn't stop this time...and both dogs were looking at my back porch door. It was about 1 am, and so I pulled my handgun out of the nightstand and went to a window next to the porch door, pulled the shades up and at the same time, kicked on the back porch light. I saw the cougar, at the bottom of my porch steps...but he was already startled by the light and the sound of that blind being pulled up...and he was already turning and running into the darkness beyond my porch light. I closed the blind, but left the porch light on and went back to the recliner where I sleep.
About an hour later...the dogs had the same reaction, but this time they were looking towards the front door. I don't have a window on that side that I can look out while drawing up the blind and turning on the porch light. So I didn't bother to try to see how close to the house the cougar was that time.
I usually let my dogs out around 4 am...(I'm up several times during the night due to back pain), but they had to wait until daylight before I let them out..lol. I opened the back door first and went out and looked around, then let them out. I wish I would have thought about recording their reaction as they went out and sniffed where the mountain lion had been in the yard. Just by watching them, I could see where the mountain lion had been out there. And, even as they sniffed, they had their hackles up. I've never seen AU either like that...he's usually a laid back dog.
I've been in this house since 2005, and this is the first cougar I've seen.
I've had deer (both mule deer and white tail), elk, foxes, bunnies, raccoons, llamas, goats, coyotes, dogs and cats in my yard...I think about the only things left that hasn't broke down my fence, or jumped it has been horses, cows, bears, bison, and bobcats.
Stormy
