About 11:15 p.m. on Monday, January 7th, I went out to the kennel to lock the dogs inside their sleeping quarters for the night. I heard them barking while I was getting my coat and boots on and stepped out on the deck to tell them to cool it and wait a minute.
As soon as they quit barking, I knew exactly what was going on. I could hear something thrashing around in the top pasture in an attempt to either get over or out of the predator perimeter fencing. I could hear grunting as well so I knew that the animal wasn't alone. And in this area, that generally means cougar.
In the morning I took four shepherds and walked to the top of the acreage and there, just over the fence in the neighboring pasture was a five point mule deer buck completely covered over by a web of grass except for his antlers which gave away his location.
Nothing to do but phone Fish and Wildlife and have them remove the carcass before the cougar returned. It was most likely watching the dogs and me from a safe vantage point on the ridge in the limber pines all the time we were taking pictures of the kill site.
Ask me why I don't have sheep in this area and why my dogs are confined when I am not outside with them.
This morning I'll be talking to one of the cougar hunters in the area and arranging for him to come out and set his dogs on the trail.
My advice. Keep your dogs close to you and under supervision when you are outside. Cougars don't care what their food source is.....edible is edible.
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