Living in Montana, you are more likely to see wildlife than in many other places. Just about ten minutes in any direction from Missoula, you're in a National Forest. Because of this, the wildlife sometimes gets a little "disoriented" and wanders into areas they are best to stay out of. People living in the outlying areas will often find bears in their yards - attracted by gardens, orchards and bird feeders. Deer are regularly seen wandering down the main streets of town; and foxes and coyotes are not all that uncommon either. And occasionally a mountain lion will wander in.
That's exactly what happened Sunday night in my little half acre heaven. At around 3:30 or so in the morning, I heard what sounded like someone banging on the side of my house. I got up, turned off the fan, and leaned into the window screen to listen - nothing. Turned the fan back on and went back to bed. A few minutes later I heard it again and repeated the process with the same results. By now my dog was awake and wanting to go outside to potty, so I opened the back door and let her out. It was a very pleasant night and I stepped out onto the back porch in my nightshirt and bare feet, and within a few seconds heard the banging noise again. Thinking now that there was a prowler in my yard, I hurried the dog back inside and shut the door, pulling the curtain back to peek out the window.
At the back of the yard are the dog kennels, covered with a tin roof which itself is supported by a 2 x 6 post in the front. In the front of the house is a street light, and in that light I noticed a shadow moving across the face of the kennels. Completely confused by what in the world it was, I watched it move across the kennels until it transferred to the back of the neighbor's garage, which is just behind my back fence. What I saw completely unraveled me - a mountain lion was walking along my roof!!
Knowing that it had probably been sitting up there watching my dog, and possibly only a few feet over my head, I felt myself begin trembling uncontrollably. I watched its shadow stroll across to just about the end of the trailer, then stand there with its tail switching. I quickly called 911 and reported it, not knowing if they even cared, but said they would send someone out to investigate. As I waited I could hear it walking the length of my trailer, first one way and then the other. Moments before they arrived I heard it back at the other end, scraping its claws on the siding as it scrambled down onto the ground. By the time the two sheriff deputies arrived it was gone.
They drove up and spotlighted my house and I opened the front door to let them know I was still up and waiting for them. They walked up to my porch as I stepped outside and told me there was nothing up there. I told them it had jumped down and that it might still be in the backyard. They circled my entire house, and even spotlighted a couple of large spruce trees in my neighbor's yard, but did not see anything. Then one of them said what I probably saw was a house cat!! I told him that I would not hear a house cat's footsteps on my roof, nor would it cast a shadow as large as the swamp cooler. They did say that they would patrol the surrounding streets to see if they could spot it, but I never heard anything back so I'm guessing they did not.
On Monday I called Fish & Game to report it, and received a message back from them, telling me that there was usually "a lot of mountain lion activity in your area"... Well, thank you - I needed to know that. Today I received another call from a gentleman who works for Fish & Game, telling me he was a tracker and if I saw it again to call him anytime day or night and he would bring his dogs out to track it. He also said it was probably just a house cat. REALLY??? Probably thinking this is just some hysterical woman who thinks she's seeing things? Do these people think I'm so stupid that I can't tell the difference? I'd be willing to bet a year's salary that if I had been a man calling to report this, it would have been the top story on the evening news...
And by the way, I never did figure out what that banging noise was. At first I though perhaps it was using the tall, thin arborvita trees to climb onto the roof, or sharpening its claws on them. But it was already on the roof when I heard that banging noise as I was standing out on the porch. Or was it? Was it still on the ground just 15 feet away from me and jumped up onto the roof while I was standing outside? Were there two of them??? I don't think I even want to know!
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