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Thanks for your post. 2 cougars have been seen here in mid-Michigan, that I personally know about, in the past few months - one directly behind my home.

I did a little investigation, and found that the 2 most attacked groups are boys under age 12, and women over 40. I'm not a boy under 12, but I am a woman over 40.

I don't want to be lunch, nor do I want to give up walking behind my home each morning. I think there are enough deer and other tender vittles roaming around that I don't have to worry, but am quite vigilant.

They'll pretty much only mess w/you if they're cornered, confused, or have lost their innate fear of man (from humans feeding them, or formerly captive animals), or if they're sick and can't hunt properly.

From what I remember, the first recorded killing of a human in the 20th century was in Northern NM in the mid-1970's. It killed and partially fed on a young boy (I think 9-10 or so). It was with 1/2 mile of his house in an arroyo. When they caught up with and killed the cat, it was a 5-6 year old female and weighed less than 50lbs. (normal would 80-100). Its teeth were almost gone, and it had signs of having been in captivity.

I've always heard it said that if you see one, it's cause it wanted you to. They are very curious animals.

The recent cases in California seem to have been solitary joggers and mountain bikers moving away form the cat.

I've had two very "close" encounters (pretty scary, but ultimately harmless) in NM in my life, and had fleeting glimpses probably ten other times. I actually consider myself fortunate to have seen them that close. They really are pretty amazing animals. I have friends who hunt them, but it's one animal that I've never been able to bring myself to kill (I have had "cat tamales" though).

A good friend of mine was nailed by one a couple of years ago while turkey hunting in NM.

He was cammo'd up, sitting against a log, shaking a gobble call, and it pounced on him from behind, and hit him on the shoulder.

They both tumbled down a little hill, the cat landed in front of him, looked at him like he was crazy, and was gone before he could even sit up.

He said it was like getting hit by 200lb. Linebacker (the cat was probably about 100-125lbs) going full tilt w/o any warning, and he was muscle-sore for days, but was otherwise uninjured.

That cat is probably still wondering about that bush that made turkey noises (cats...birds...you get it), that turned into a funny looking human.

I'm certainly not against development, but the very things we tend to value (isolation, privacy, scenery, forest...)in selecting homes in urban-forest interface areas are also not always friendly to humans (varmints, predators, forest fires, etc.).

I live in South Carolina now, and we recently had one kill 2 dogs near 50 miles from where I live. They didn't think there were any around here at all, but nature abhors a vacuum, so who knows.

If you have confirmed signs of them in your area, be cautious, but don't let it scare you out of the forest.

And a good, clean well oiled .45 never hurts either.