11/27/07 Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My! My creative retreat is riding my blue roan Indigo out on the trails& alone. Well meaning friends have alerted me to the fact that that a cougar has been sighted in the area I typically ride. Naturally I will be alert, but no more so than when I spot a hiker with an unruly dog as I have yet to be chased by a bear, cougar or coyote but I have had horses attacked by pit bulls, and a very viscous yellow lab. Funny how we will close a grade school over a cougar sighting while allow aggressive dogs in proximity of our children. Put into perspective in the last 115 years in the US only 18 people have been killed by cougars. (Some sources record just ten.) Yet in the 20 some years between 1979 and the late 1990's over 300 people were killed by domesticated dogs meaning your family dog or neighbor's is ten times more likely to kill you than a cougar and 100 times more likely than a coyote. If you are in the back country and you just have to be afraid of something then fear thunder storms. Lightening strikes have killed a heck of a lot more people then coyotes, black bears or the big cats. I'll see you on the trail; keep an eye out for dogs!