There's a Mountain Lion in My Yard

I was home alone last Wednesday night when I heard the most awful sounds outside. Its still chilly at night so the windows were closed. It almost sounded like the little girl across the street who is always squealing and screeching, like little girls do, so I didn't pay much attention to it at first. Then Hugo, my St. Bernard, jumped up and the hair on his back was on end and he was growling, huffing and puffing, and pacing from one end of the house to the other. He's 3, and I've never seen him do that before. He has the I.Q. of a lampshade and unless it has something to do with food or getting his belly rubbed, he's oblivious to the world around him. I went out on the back porch with him, which is enclosed and screened it. He was even more agitated. I realized that it wasn't the neighbor kid. It was the most horrible sound like some animal caught in a trap.

The back of our property goes into a narrow swamp which is the ruins of the original Champlain canal. There there are some woods, then the new canal, then a small narrow wooded island, then the Hudson River beyond that. We have lots of wild critters, being so far in the country. I knew it wasn't coyotes, we have those, but they don't come near homes. At first I thought a couple of raccoons or woodchucks may have been fighting, but there was no rustling in the woods or splashes in the swamp, just this horrible screaming. Then my husband and daughter came home, and it stopped. I had to hold Hugo back when they came on the porch.

Last night I was visiting my friend Brett who lives about three miles south of us. He lives near the ruins of an old mill which is on the river also and has a lot of woods around his property. He told me that on Thursday night, he heard these awful sounds too. He has a Great Dane and two mutts and his dogs were agitated too. They were out in the fenced yard so he brought them right in, not knowing what it was. It was a warm night and his windows were open. He said the sounds went on for quite awhile. He said he told his grandmother about it and she told him it was a mountain lion. He was skeptical at first, but she described the sounds perfectly and said she has seen them in the past.

When I came home from his house, it was about midnight. We have a long driveway so we park a good distance from our house. I am scared of the dark, so it doesn't take much to put me on edge.  I was so creeped out that I drove up on the lawn and parked about six feet from the back door. I was still sleeping when the family left for school and work this morning, but I'm sure I'll hear about it when they get home tonight.