Mailbag – a Cougar Story

This cougar was not ignored.

My goats were having their kids outside of Sweet Home and everything was fine for about a month. When I went up there to check on them, one was gone — just gone. I checked all of the fence, and the fence was fine. No coyotes could get in, and I knew it was a cougar.

I was so mad I went looking for it, but I knew a .22 would not take care of my problem, so I came back and told my mom. Maybe it will go on its way; I was wrong.

About two weeks later the second baby was gone and a third was hurt with blood and hide gone, but it lived. Something had to be done.

I called Fish and Wildlife, and I asked if I could shoot a cougar outside of the pasture knowing that it killed my goats. They said no. I could only do it if the cougar was in the pasture and attacking the goats, and I said, oh really?

So they gave me the government trapper’s number and I went to BiMart and got a cougar tag so I can shoot a cougar outside of the pasture now.

So Jim came up and looked around outside the pasture. He came back and said yes, the cougar tracks are from about a 90-pound cat, and so he set some traps out.

Thank you, Jim, for taking care of my problem. That was early spring, and now it’s fall and two different families that live on the mountain told my mom that they saw a large cougar by her house, and one family came eye to eye with it.

So, thank you Jim for taking the time and walking the walk. We will be calling again and loaded rifle is ready to go.

Susan Allard, Scio (Oct. 18)

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