Cougars

[BoldHighlander]

Get yourself a big walking stick

We haven't had a big cat sighting in town for about 3 or 4 years now, but with the urban growth of the area, & the ban on hound hunting, the cougar population mushroomed (which accounted for them moving into the outskirts of town).
At one point we had one living on Sehome Hill, which is a wooded green space surrounded by a highly urban neighborhood, the college, & a high school!

It seemed they lost their fear of man & dogs around here, and at a popular lake & park about 7 years ago, two women on a nature walk were attacked by a big cat. The only thing that kept it from doing serious damage was one woman's walking staff keeping it just out of reach! When my daughter's grade school class had a field trip there, I'd go along & walk the trail in the back of the pack, watching both for stragglers and the brush & trees. Better to be safe than sorry

The deer population in the area has mushroomed too (real road hazards), so this might account for the decline in local cougar sightings (they're not hunting further out for chow). I don't know...

Anyhow, unless you have the factors we had here, you'll probably be alright. Usually big cats are very solitary & really don't like human contact.
I remember as a kid (about 11 or 12 yrs old) while spending the summer at my grandfather's farm in the SW part of this state, we were going up into the woods to check the spring level where the communities water was piped in from. While trudging up the hillside, we had a big cat (close but unseen) "scream" at us....liked to scare me half to death (and just as the old tales say, it did sound like a woman's scream). My grandfather, a man of the woods (a life long hunter & logger, both in the Ozarks & here in Washington state), paused, said "its just a cougar, probably warning us off from a fresh kill", and he just continued on his way.
We never did see that big cat, nor were troubled by it on the way back down.
I'll never forget that close encounter.

(Sorry for the long winded response, I got on a roll )

[Lallans]

Get yourself a big walking stick

We haven't had a big cat sighting in town for about 3 or 4 years now, but with the urban growth of the area, & the ban on hound hunting, the cougar population mushroomed (which accounted for them moving into the outskirts of town).
At one point we had one living on Sehome Hill, which is a wooded green space surrounded by a highly urban neighborhood, the college, & a high school!

It seemed they lost their fear of man & dogs around here, and at a popular lake & park about 7 years ago, two women on a nature walk were attacked by a big cat. The only thing that kept it from doing serious damage was one woman's walking staff keeping it just out of reach! When my daughter's grade school class had a field trip there, I'd go along & walk the trail in the back of the pack, watching both for stragglers and the brush & trees. Better to be safe than sorry

The deer population in the area has mushroomed too (real road hazards), so this might account for the decline in local cougar sightings (they're not hunting further out for chow). I don't know...

Anyhow, unless you have the factors we had here, you'll probably be alright. Usually big cats are very solitary & really don't like human contact.
I remember as a kid (about 11 or 12 yrs old) while spending the summer at my grandfather's farm in the SW part of this state, we were going up into the woods to check the spring level where the communities water was piped in from. While trudging up the hillside, we had a big cat (close but unseen) "scream" at us....liked to scare me half to death (and just as the old tales say, it did sound like a woman's scream). My grandfather, a man of the woods (a life long hunter & logger, both in the Ozarks & here in Washington state), paused, said "its just a cougar, probably warning us off from a fresh kill", and he just continued on his way.
We never did see that big cat, nor were troubled by it on the way back down.
I'll never forget that close encounter.

(Sorry for the long winded response, I got on a roll )

I generally do carry a big stick, for balance, for beating off the mosquitos found here, and against the possibility of rabid fox attacks- I see those poor creatures occasionally but so far have been lucky in that they weren't in the biting phase or whatever it is. I have other 'sticks' that carry things like 00 buck, but that is mostly discouraged in Ontario these days. Anyway the encouraging news is that larger humans do seem to be immune from most wildlife-related problems, so clearly I should continue working hard to gain weight

[BoldHighlander]

I generally do carry a big stick, for balance, for beating off the mosquitos found here,

Do they get that big there?!
(I'm picturing an old Sci-Fi B-movie )

and against the possibility of rabid fox attacks- I see those poor creatures occasionally but so far have been lucky in that they weren't in the biting phase or whatever it is.

Wow! I never realized that about them, though I read about a recent fox-biting attack on a couple of children (in their house) in England....

I have other 'sticks' that carry things like 00 buck,

You just brought to mind a metal band I listened to back in the early 80's called Krokus. They had a song entitled "The Long Stick Goes Boom"

Anyway the encouraging news is that larger humans do seem to be immune from most wildlife-related problems, so clearly I should continue working hard to gain weight

I'll give you some of mine (I need to lose about 20 lbs)