Yesterday afternoon at about 2:45, I was walking my dog on the road (I think it’s called Ridge Road or Ridge Trail) that runs parallel to Sasquatch, but several feet higher up. A large cougar literally pounced out of nowhere onto the path from the high side of the trail.
The cougar was larger than my dog, who is probably the size of a large lab. I was so startled I yelled and kicked the cougar in the face. The cougar retreated back up the terrain on the high side, but turned to face us and kept looking at me and Rico, (my dog). I pulled out my Sabre (a little weapon that sprays a steady stream into the face of the attacker), and stood there Charlie’s Angels style pointing my “gun” at the cougar, and yelling at it to go away. It just looked at me for a while, but eventually turned around and slowly retreated higher up the mountain. I too retreated back in the direction I came, looking back quite often to make sure it didn’t follow me.
I think I was very lucky, and looking at information online, did the right thing in kicking it, yelling at it and trying to make myself aggressive. It did look like it was well-fed already, so that’s a good thing!
Suzy Williamson