QUODDY COUGARS ARE NO MYTH

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Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:33:31 -0300 From: Todd Watts

Subject: Re: Mountain Lion in Connecticut

 The cats reported by Steven have been seen by other area residents. One of our closest neighbors reported seeing a long tailed cat cross highway #1 in one or two bounds, a friend observed one near Saint Andrews and people within one kilometer of my home reported seeing Cougar in a field behind their house. I cannot claim to have seen any evidence of these cats. However, it seems likely that one or more of these animals have been visiting this part of the province for many years. As one might expect, I am actively looking for signs of these creatures. Todd Watts Bocabec, NB On 27-Jul-11, at 6:39 PM, Brian Dalzell wrote:

Forwarded to the list with permission of Mr. Smith. >

>> Subject: Re: Mountain Lion in Connecticut >> From: Steven Smith
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:44:02 -0300 >> Cc: Steven Smith
To: Brian Dalzell

Good Morning Brian,

 I can't understand why there are so many skeptics in the province of New Brunswick regarding the Eastern Cougar.  All of my life I have been fortunate to have seen this elusive cat.  

As a child in Milltown NB my father caught two red squirrels and  put them in a cage and keep them in our barn.  My dad heard a noise and quietly called my brother and I too look,  the cougar or very large cat was in the barn trying to get our two  squirrels! My dad slammed the back door and it leaped out of the  barn.  One thing that I remember is that the long tail flipped from side  to side and it ran away.

A few years later about 1960 my neighbour had a brown boxer dog and   it had these brown sort of stand up ears. This dog would chase us not to bite but play with us.   This one weekend my grandmother, aunt, a few cousins and my friend went for a walk up through a field filled with tall unmown hay to  the the reservoir at Todd's Mountain. As we approached the hill I  spotted those two familiar stand up brown ears sticking up out the  hay, so we started running up to play with our neighbours dog and as we got closer, to our surprise a very large cougar stood up and  started down the hill toward us. We all started running for home.  The large cat only followed us for I will say fifty feet turned and   walked away. That was a exciting. 

 In 1971 I worked for my second cousin Charles Bartlett who owned  Woolastook Wild Life Park in Longscreek near Fredericton and he  trained me for a year as a games keeper especially with the Timber   Wolfs and Cougar named "Bob".   I became very familiar with his eating habits, how much he would eat at one sitting or what he would hoard to one side and save.  I will never forget the first time I had to clean out his pen and  picking up his scat, the size of it and it's distinct smell!  

In 1977 my wife Gail and I purchased a cottage at the Ledge Road on the banks of the Saint Croix River where we had created the Crocker Hill Studios and Gardens. Around the years from 1980 to about 1990 I would go searching for  pieces of granite to use in landscape our property.  I found an abandoned granite quarry at Todd's Point on the top of a  hill called "Mount Misery".  I was blessed I had never seen so much granite. I asked the permission to gather stones and park my car around this quarry. >> This is where I started gathering the stones for my garden design  and today in 2011 some of those stones are now here in St. Andrews.  We had an English Setter dog named Judd, beautiful guy.   I would take him with me on every trip to the quarry.  One day as we walked in on this over grown road into the quarry Judd stopped and didn't want to go any further, eventually he did.  As we walked over the top on of the quarry which had a lot of old  burnt trees and lichens, different mosses and a small pond made  from a hole out of a blasted area, I noticed a large patch of moss and earth all tore up and large scratch marks. I felt a bit uneasy.  I carried out a few stones and gathered a few other pieces, put in   a pile to get tomorrow.   Judd and I started back in the same road the next day and he again  did not want to go.   I had a leash on him and we went in and you would not believe the  mess that area around that pile of stones I put there the day before. All the mosses, plants, pieces of wood were tore up and  next to this was the largest pile of "Scat" that I had seen!  I knew it was a Cougar or the Eastern Mountain Lion. 

In 2000 I went to Fredericton to purchase a new VW and I still have it today. Over the years I would make at least four trips a year to Fredericton for VW service.  About five years ago I started out at 6:30 am.to Fredericton on route 127 on approaching Watt Junction I saw a movement or something in the ditch maybe 1000 feet ahead of me. There was a car behind me I slowed down and there was a large Cougar strolling out of the ditch and gently crossed the road, flipped his tail and over the years to Fredericton I have see this large cat twice.  

 In March of 2011 I was on the Airline Highway to Bangor, Maine to pick up Gail at the Bangor Airport.  As you get close to Bangor you drive through an area with a lot of  high peaks of silver gray granite and very hilly. I was in a string of traffic that I had to follow at their speed or pull over.  As we drove I just happen to look over to my right into this sort of a clearing into some trees and up in one of the trees there was a large deer carcass hanging in the crotch of that tree. I could  not stop! How did it get up in that tree??   It was getting close to dark on the way home and I could not find  that dead hanging deer.   I will keep you posted.

steven smith

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