Entries RSSI hear mewing. I’m alone on a trail with my two twenty-five pound dogs who haven’t heard it yet. I stop. Listen. Definitely mewing. Coming from behind some thick brush about 50 meters from me. I actually do think for a split second that I might go investigate. But the moment passes.
Three days prior, I sat on the couch in my living room. Call it intuition or some other type of sixth sense, but I glanced out the window toward the Flatirons and caught sight of a mountain lion racing downhill. By the time I’d grabbed binoculars, he was way gone. It’s a blessing to see a mountain lion. A rare occurrence.
The next day, I read in the paper that a 2-year old male mountain lion had been tranquilized, collared, and moved from someone’s backyard two blocks way and back into the wild where he belonged. That lion was a male, though. Not likely to be the one raising the cubs I hear. My pups and I move on before anyone else sees us and finds out our secret. No, I won’t tell the division of wildlife. I don’t want the lion and her cubs disturbed. Yes, she’s chosen a high-traffic area to nurse her cubs. But, she’s not bothering anyone. And, I chose to run there. I could have run on the pavement, down Sixth street, to the river.
Later that same afternoon, I’m weeding in front of my house. A ranger pulls up his truck, gets out, and trains his binoculars up the hill. I’m thinking someone else has heard the mewing. Someone called the cavalry. I’m relieved when he drives away. I check the paper in the morning to see if any lions and cubs have been tagged and moved or euthanized. Nothing but a short blurb about two men who simultaneously tasered each other at a bar over the weekend. The lion can relax for a while. Law enforcement is busy with more important things in Boulder.
-Michelle
