This place I live in is on the edge of the wilderness. Vancouver is a city wedged between ocean and mountains. It’s a place that isn’t really all that tamed, geography just doesn’t permit it. I love the wildness, the sort of rugged beauty. However, there are certain concessions that need to be made when you live in a place like this.
We have lots of black bears in our province, and we need to be ever mindful of them. We also have lots of raccoons, skunks and coyotes. These are the animals that you’re most likely to come across in developed areas. But the animal that scares me the most, and is thankfully considered extremely elusive, is the cougar. 165 pounds of wildcat is not my idea of a good time.
Photo courtesy of digitalART2 on Flickr
Two weeks ago in Brackendale, an hour or so North of Vancouver, there was a cougar attack. The area of the attack is rural and mountainous. A family was picking berries in a local park when a cougar jumped on their 3-year-old daughter, pinning her to the ground.
Her mother took immediate action. The radio report I heard said she pulled the cougar off her daughter and placed herself between them. She managed to stand up and push the big cat off. And he backed down and ran off. The little girl has some puncture wounds to her head, but is just fine and apparently not all that shaken. The cougar was later hunted down and shot.
Listening to the report left me shaking. The actions of this mom struck me. She’s probably no different than I am, but she fought off a large predator without a second thought. The mere idea of facing down a wildcat to protect your child overwhelms me with emotion.
I can’t say for sure how I would react if a cougar attacked my child. But I bet I could be as fierce and strong as I needed to be. I could wrestle a cougar to keep my baby safe. And that’s what makes me shake. The power that is contained in the heart of a mother. It’s amazing and frightening and ferocious. And it cannot be contained.
So I’m putting the cougars on notice. They had better stay elusive, because they don’t want to see just how ferocious I can become.
I teared up when I heard that report, too. And then, on TV, the mother was so calm and …little. Yes, I know I would die for my precious grandchildren. And I would roar, too, at anything or anyone who threatened them.There's a book here, Amber. I'm liking the topics.
crazy,eloquent
Oh, believe me–kiddo, you could do it. You would likely throw that cougar about 12 yards away from your baby–and THEN think about it. Years ago, my baby climbed a big, heavy shelf and just as I saw her halfway up–the whole thing fell on her. The next thing I know I’m sitting on the floor rocking her in my arms. My husband came in and asked how I had moved that horrific shelf to the other side of the basement–by myself. It always took two men to move it…or one mom.
My baby was under there…so…
I threw it.
Great post.
We had a bear wander through our complex a few weeks ago. The odd coyote too. But no cougars.
The wild cats, I mean. There are plenty of the OTHER kind of cougars around here.
Mums have amazing strength and ferocity when provoked – you’ll find you have it in you when the time comes (hopefully it’s not a cougar attack though)
Hmmm… so that time when Angus was stuck and screaming in the tube slide at the McDonald’s play structure and my eight-months-pregnant friend climbed up and got him because she knows how claustrophobic I am — that makes me not such a great Mom, right? (Not too mention that I’ve now revealed that I sometimes take my kids to Mcdonalds. I’m SO out of the Good Moms Club).
You know, I have to say that until I had Annabelle I had a history of being quite passive when interacting with an fierce and ferocious person/being. Since becoming a mamma though, my mother bear has exerted herself . . . I have now experienced what it is to “have words” with other folks, especially when others are “not being nice” or flat-out-rude to my daughter or husband.
That said, I do wonder what caused the cougar to attack the little girl/family . . . what is going on environmentally (if at all) that might have influenced the cougar to attack humans? I am no expert, so perhaps there is no good reason at all.
It’s amazing the power of a mother when their child is hurt. You hear these stories every once in a while (mother pulling car of son etc..) but it amazes me every time.
Last year, Jenny (the Bloggess) wrote about protecting her daughter from wild dogs (who left their bites on Jenny instead), and I had a similar reaction. Protecting my babies? I’m there and any animal had better watch out.
When it comes to protecting my wife or children, I’d stare down the devil himself. The impulse to protect the ones we love overrides everything else. It’s just human nature.
If anything threatened that perfect little human being that’s with you in the photo in today’s post, and I was with him when it happened, I wouldn’t think twice about protecting him and I don’t even know him, or you. I think it’s human nature to protect small creatures. However, what I really want to tell you is that you can wash your shower curtain with other laundry, and you can put it in the dryer on low heat to dry it but you have to be careful when you take it out that you shake and straighten it right away or else it will crumple into plastic frustration.
That is freakin crazy. I’m sure (I think!?) I’d do the same thing.
Your husband grew up in the arms of a mother bear. Woe betide the cougar that got between her and her cubs. He has chosen wisely, another one that protects her cubs in just the same way. In time to come it won’t be a cougar (those are easy). It will be humans who will not love or appreciate your cubs the way you do. You will balance everything you know in order to raise them properly and protect them from harm and harmful ones. Raising children is the single most important thing you will accomplish. You have our support and our love. Ted