This is Cougar Hunter’s motto. And for good reason. Sometimes he’s not too bright. But he sure is tough.
Last week Cougar Hunter darted a cougar in a tree next to a stream. For those of you who do not understand the problem with darting a cat next to a stream, you’ll soon find out.
To give Cougar Hunter credit, in his study area, every tree is near a stream, but just as Cougar Hunter feared, the cat jumped from the tree and ran…after it was darted. Cougar Hunter tracked the cat through a foot of snow and across the stream roughly eight times. The last time he came to the stream, he didn’t see tracks on the other side. But when he looked upriver, he saw the cat hanging over a log, face down in the water.
Just as he had feared.
Cougar Hunter ran up the creek—-in thigh-high, freezing cold water—-grabbed the cat by the collar and pulled its head out of the stream, only to have the cat turn on him and try to take his face off. Somehow Cougar Hunter kept hold of the cat, while standing in the middle of the rushing water, and injected it with more drug. Then he dragged the 165 pound male cougar to an island in the middle of the stream and recollared it. Fifty minutes later, his “help” showed up. They carried the cat across the stream to a spot far enough away from the water that it wouldn’t drown itself as it woke up.
I’m not that tough. Had this been me, I’d have died from hypothermia. Or I would’ve been cougar bait. But then again, I’m not that stupid.
