I've heard all my life that cats hate water. Since I've moved to the wilderness I've learned that animals are rather unpredictable. Their actions depend on the individual critter, their needs, the whim of the moment and a zillion other things. Let me tell you another true story to illustrate.
It was a rainy evening, about thirty minutes before dark. The weather was warm and I had been sitting on my deck at the back of my house. As usual, I had sipped a couple of beers and listened to some music on my I-pod. The drizzling rain had coaxed me under the eave of the house at the glass doors which open to the deck and the forest.
My eye was attracted to a movement from my right, only about thirty feet away. When I swiveled my head I saw a mountain lion walking past the house in a direction that would take it past the side of my house to the front yard. That was not the most surprising thing, however.
Behind the mama were three cubs, lined up nose to tail like a bunch of elephants. They were very low to the ground in their build, like a Dachshund, only bigger. They were quite long. Within a few steps the whole group had disappeared into the heavy foliage without making a sound.
So much for the 'cats hate rain' adage! I was thrilled to get to see such a sight, of course. I was also concerned about the knowledge that the creatures were frequenting an area where my loved ones happened to hang out.
At any rate, I know that no one in this area believes that cougars have been within hundreds of miles of here in generations so I don't tell any locals about it; so as to avoid teasing.
I learned off the web that mountain lions can do miraculous things. They can jump twenty feet into the air, twenty five or thirty feet horizontally and have been known to jump off heights of fifty feet or so and survive without major damage. Their woodcraft is astounding and they make a living with their stealth. They never stay in one area too long and range over an area of 100 square miles or more.
I am convinced that there is a cave or some such retreat in the deep woods behind our house where these rare animals drop by occasionally to make babies.
In a future post I'll tell you another mountain lion story. I have several more you'll enjoy, I hope.
By the way, about a year after this incident I was reading a book by Wilbur Smith, titled Assegai. In the book Smith tells about seeing a leopard with it's cubs and they were 'traveling single file as the mother trains the cubs to do'. I thought this was very cool as I had seen the same thing here in the USA with a different breed of cat. One last thing before I end this post, definitely read the aforementioned book by Wilbur Smith. It's one of the best books I've read in years. Wish I could write as well as Wilbur.
It was a rainy evening, about thirty minutes before dark. The weather was warm and I had been sitting on my deck at the back of my house. As usual, I had sipped a couple of beers and listened to some music on my I-pod. The drizzling rain had coaxed me under the eave of the house at the glass doors which open to the deck and the forest.
My eye was attracted to a movement from my right, only about thirty feet away. When I swiveled my head I saw a mountain lion walking past the house in a direction that would take it past the side of my house to the front yard. That was not the most surprising thing, however.
Behind the mama were three cubs, lined up nose to tail like a bunch of elephants. They were very low to the ground in their build, like a Dachshund, only bigger. They were quite long. Within a few steps the whole group had disappeared into the heavy foliage without making a sound.
So much for the 'cats hate rain' adage! I was thrilled to get to see such a sight, of course. I was also concerned about the knowledge that the creatures were frequenting an area where my loved ones happened to hang out.
At any rate, I know that no one in this area believes that cougars have been within hundreds of miles of here in generations so I don't tell any locals about it; so as to avoid teasing.
I learned off the web that mountain lions can do miraculous things. They can jump twenty feet into the air, twenty five or thirty feet horizontally and have been known to jump off heights of fifty feet or so and survive without major damage. Their woodcraft is astounding and they make a living with their stealth. They never stay in one area too long and range over an area of 100 square miles or more.
I am convinced that there is a cave or some such retreat in the deep woods behind our house where these rare animals drop by occasionally to make babies.
In a future post I'll tell you another mountain lion story. I have several more you'll enjoy, I hope.
By the way, about a year after this incident I was reading a book by Wilbur Smith, titled Assegai. In the book Smith tells about seeing a leopard with it's cubs and they were 'traveling single file as the mother trains the cubs to do'. I thought this was very cool as I had seen the same thing here in the USA with a different breed of cat. One last thing before I end this post, definitely read the aforementioned book by Wilbur Smith. It's one of the best books I've read in years. Wish I could write as well as Wilbur.
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