Young Cougar

Linda Dahiman photo

We flushed him out of his habitat,

chopped down all the trees,

leaving him bare hillsides, 

decimated deer populations,

and no place to hide, or rest.

Down the slopes he came,

skinny, hungry, 

searching for food,

into what we arrogantly call

"our" territory,

(as if it ever was anything more

than loaned to us

to preserve and protect).

Young Cougar has had to learn

to co-exist

with our noisy presence,

the shriek of chainsaws and helicopters in the woods,

to dodge our speeding cars, 

put up with our racket,

our paved streets and row upon row of houses,

our Everywhere Presence,

encroaching further and further 

into a vanishing wilderness.

This week, Young Cougar lay down in her yard

and stared at her through her window, unafraid.

His look was not threatening.

It was curious, assessing.

Finding no threat,

he lay down for a few moments, to rest.

But calls have been going in to Wildlife

and what is euphemistically called Conservation.

And now they are hunting him

with guns and dogs,

to shoot him for being so unafraid.

Instead of taking him far out into the wilderness

and setting him free,

they will shoot him

for being hungry and homeless.

Who the predator?

Who the prey?

If we can remember that,

over the course of centuries,

we all may have been

both hunter and hunted,

predator and prey,

warriors and warred upon,

perhaps we can spare

some mercy

for other creatures (and other humans)

who are also simply

trying to survive

in this shrinking, calamitous world.

Nicole Shanks photo

Run fast, young cougar.

May you survive into your old age.

I tried to copy the video on facebook of this youngster lying down looking through the window, but it would not copy beyond facebook. Sigh.  This is for Sumana's prompt at Midweek Motif: Predator and Prey. Timely, given the several cougar sightings around town this past week. We had a cougar move through our creekbed across the street, out behind my old trailer. He left our livestock alone. But Mama Deer, who has been visiting us with two fawns, now arrives with just one. The way of the wild, sad though it is to think of the terror the deer experienced in those terrible moments. 

We are out of town a ways, so our cougar may survive. The one in town is being actively hunted and will likely not last the week. He was seen eating a deer and has not so far threatened humans or domestic animals. But his presence within the city limits puts him in peril.  How they expect him to know the boundaries of the city limits, i have no idea.