Posted on 12/21/2009 7:56:50 AM PST by earlJam
Hundreds of people in Southwest Michigan claim to have seen cougars.
Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition, a group started six years ago by local attorney and Van Buren County Commissioner Denise Noble, has catalogued nearly 200 cougar sightings in Allegan, Van Buren, Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties. Add in Barry, Cass and Berrien counties, and total cougar sightings reported in Southwest Michigan jump to 412.
Allegan County had the third highest number of reported cougar sightings in the state, with 62. Van Buren County came in fifth, with 58. Kalamazoo County was seventh in the state, with 54.
Noble said Southwest Michigans large deer population and open tracts of land lured cougars from out west into the area.
I think we definitely have a population here, Noble said. I dont think it is that we have more cougars. I think it is that more people are willing to report and be part of the process.
Reported sightings in the area date back to the 1800s, but the bulk of them have been since 2000. In Kalamazoo County, according to Nobles data, cougars have been spotted crossing U.S. 131, in rural areas near Gull Lake and Climax, and in the city, at the intersection of Douglas and Mosel avenues and near Wheaton Avenue and Oakland Drive.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
Ah, the delightful Heather Locklear was in many of my youthful dreams and daydreams...
Cloven hoof print at that.
Raised in the city. But I do know it probably wasn't a footprint.
Yeah, just as I thought......it only took two posts for this thread to go the obvious direction........ lol!
Would you believe this offbeat group called “Trout Fishing in America” actually wrote a song on this subject at least a decade ago?
Chorus: There’s a panther in Michigan.
Don’t that make your Halloween?
There’s a panther in Michigan,
although he is seldom seen
And he’s following the water in the ways of the Indian,
And he’s crossing the border to Indiana.
There’s an awful lot of cover
down along the Raisin river.
We would set up on the one side,
he’d show up on the other.
I know people used to wonder
why we couldn’t catch the panther,
There’s an awful lot of cover
down along the Raisin river.
When a farmer in Manchester called,
I was there in minutes,
Following the trail of feathers
Through the high grass when he screamed.
Thirty-four years in law enforcement,
I’ve never been so scared.
I could see where he was going
by the way the grass was moving.
Now, people who know panthers
say that they are lazy hunters,
And they will take a prey that’s wounded
over one that’s healthy,
And he might take a child,
playing in a sand-box,
For some kind of wounded critter
down along the Raisin river.
Test drivers saw the panther
at the Chrysler proving grounds.
It was during hunting season.
He was out there on the track,
And he knew if he went in there,
he’d be safe from hunters.
He’s an uncanny animal.
What color was the one the telephone guy saw?
You knew it was gonna happen. :-)
Wayne: Look Garth it’s Heather Locklear and she’s signaling to us. There is a god!
Garth: Heather be thy name.
Me too. I would have given anything to trade places with Rob Lowe when they filmed, "About Last Night."
Gotta give credit where credit's due - Joan Collins defined the term "Cougar" before the term even existed.
I second that.
"How dare you talk that way about my wife?"
They are here in Calhoun County. Neighbors have seen them a number of times during the past several years.
What bars have the been sighted in mostly?
How about trading places with Michael Caine when they filmed "Blame it on Rio"?
Heck, would "Blame it on Rio" even be legal nowadays?
There were a ton of movies in that era - Pretty Baby, Private Lessons - which would get you sent straight to a maximum security prison nowadays [with a tattoo of "child molester" on your forehead for the rest of your life].
Wasn't she his daughter in that movie? And like 17? Nah, she was way hotter in About Last Night.
I thought Heather was a conservative... I think the Spin City stuff is just her acting gig.
Iv’e dated a couple in southeast Michigan....
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