I have been reading our local weekly paper. A neighbor of mine reported seeing a black bear with two cubs near the barn behind her house. In recent years there have been more and more bear sightings in my area as they move east out of the mountains. I haven't seen one yet and hope I don't run up on momma bear and her cubs.
I also read about a guy who worked with Hubby being bit on the hand by a copperhead snake. His hand was swollen to almost twice its normal size and he had to spend two nights in the hospital. I've killed two copperheads in my yard this summer. Black snakes I can tolerate, but not copperheads.
Then, there have been more cougar sightings in the area. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries keeps declaring that we do not have cougars here. Since so many people have seen the cougars, they finally conceded that someone must have let them loose. I wouldn't want to come face to face with a cougar while going for a walk, and I do worry about my cats being supper for one.
I never considered that I was living in the wilds, but I may have to reconsider.
11 comments:
We've had cougar sightings in my Franklin County neighborhood for the last several years. I haven't seen one yet, but I have seen the neighborhood bear. And then there's the coyote that followed the tractor while my husband was raking hay last spring.
Our neighbor got bit by a copperhead a couple of summers ago, and spent a week in the hospital (shudder)
We have all three of the varmints you mentioned here and frequently seen in town. Copperheads are indigenous. I hate snakes, even good ones.
We are a fairly rural community. I have seen wild turkeys, and , of course, deer.
Even here in the city, we are seeing more and more wildlife. I suppose it had to happen as we have settled more and more of the land they thought they owned.
We have always thought that there were no mountain lions in this area. Bears, yes, but no mountain lions. Then a friend from overseas came to visit and she went for a drive, then came back and told us that she'd snapped a picture of a mountain lion. "Sure," we thought, "it was probably a bobcat." Then she showed us a photo of a huge mountain lion! Yikes.
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Snakes are a major phobia for me. Can't even look at pictures of them, or watch movies/tv shows where they appear. God forbid I should actually meet one in person...
We had much more mundane species in our backyard when I was growing up -- alot of deer, raccoons, and gophers.
From a Texas gal I say, do be careful of copperhead snakes. They are very bad news. It's nice living in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. We have no poisonus snakes on this side of the Cascade Mountains. You never thought you'd see the day your kitties would have to be inside kitties in order to be safe but it appears those days are coming.
There were reports of cougar sightings across the WV line from here last year. Also last year Frankie woke up one night to see a black bear outside our bedroom window. the next night I got to talk to a couple of deputies after firing a load of bird shot into the trees to scare that bear off the next door neighbor's back porch. We live outside town limits and firing a weapon is legal here in the county but they wanted to make sure I wasn't handling the shotgun in a reckless manner. When I answered the door wearing a USAF Special Operations Command T-shirt the corporal said "You probably have more firearms experience than both of us put together." He's probably right.
I wish we had more wildlife here, but that probably will not happen.
Cougars have been sighted around here too and the Wildlife Dept has finally conceded that there are some.
The idea of bears have me a little flustered since I know they will be in our woods when we move.
Updating the Franklin County sighting: The Dec. 16, 2011 Franklin News-Post ran this article about a mountain lion in Sandy Level.
http://www.thefranklinnewspost.com/article.cfm?ID=20872&back=archives
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