Sometime around two o’clock I woke up thirsty.
I got up and went to the kitchen to get a glass of cold milk. Nothing unusual, I’ve done this on many nights.
As I walked past the glass-door to the deck I noticed a large black something-or-other in the snow.
I thought it was a couple of my local raccoons.
I’d put some expired meat out for them before I went to bed. Then I thought again. This black something was very still. The raccoons are rarely still. They’re always elbowing for better position. Curious, I opened the door.
A large creature with a long black tail glided silently away.
I didn’t know what to make of this mysterious visitor. I saw it for only a milli-second in the night, but I saw it from only a few feet away. I could clearly distinguish size, rump, and tail. My first impression was of a half-grown cougar, or the largest house-cat I’ve ever seen.
I finished my milk and went back to bed. In the morning I would look for tracks.
The tracks confirmed my visual. They were pug-marks, twice or more the size of kitty-tracks. It was too early in the morning for melting snow to enlarge them.
Though unlikely, a cougar in Ohio is not impossible. In recent years some few cougars have been spotted in Ohio and in our neighboring states of Indiana and Pennsylvania.
Canada isn’t all that far away. A wandering cougar could easily ramble down from Canada, to Minnesota, then on to Ohio.
Several years ago our village paper reported two sighting a few days apart. The report connected the two sightings with an earlier sighting in eastern Indiana.
The article speculated it was the same cougar on the move, searching for a new home territory.
Mamma cats, whether leopard or tabby, discourage their cubs from hanging around too long after adolescence. Female kitties typically stay longer than their brothers.
Eventually, both sexes are forced to get a job or find a mate - somewhere else. That’s why roaming cats are a commonplace.
The creature I saw may have moved on too.
I’m sure the raccoons would cheer that event. I’d like to have another look.
I’m quite certain I saw a cat, a large cat. I don’t know what kind of cat. I think I’ll put out some more meat this evening, then check back around two o’clock.
Maybe I can get a better look.
Who knows what shadow stalks the night.