Cougar!

When mountain lions attack! Apparently there’s a young cougar attempting to establish territory in Bend, primarily on Awbrey Butte and possibly Shevlin Park. This is not unusual for Central Oregon, but the way the local news outlets have been covering this story you’d think the world is ending. I actually find all the hooplah amusing.

Here’s the online rundown:

The Bulletin actually has the better coverage; makes me long for the days of Barney at Bend.com.

Speaking of Barney, KTVZ has been covering the cougar nightly, too. I get a chuckle and shake my head every time I hear them talking about it; something about their delivery, maybe, but when one of the items reported is about a sighting that turned out to be a house cat, well, you just have to laugh.

Look, I’ve lived here most of my life, so to me it’s just not shocking, freaky or worriesome when this type of thing happens, it just gets dealt with. Face it, this isn’t just cougar country, it’s also bear, coyote and rattlesnake country, and that’s not changing anytime soon; this Chicken Little syndrome is getting old.

10 comments

  1. Dare I tell you your mom said to watch Porter and make sure he doesn’t get the wrath of the cougar. I told her it was unlikely that a cougar would jump over a 6 (probably 7 with the lattice) feet fence…although you never know.

    One thing I’ve noticed lately, I think i’m rubbing off on you. You have become more cynical lately.

  3. True… 🙂 Although I’m not making trying to make fun of the reporters themselves this time, but more the sensationalism of the whole goofy cougar reporting.

  5. Hey, we’ve been posting some of the cougar stories on KTVZ.com too – and I don’t think we’ve been breathless or sensationalistic in the coverage, but seriously, can you think of a bigger water-cooler topic around here? It’s a serious issue, and has lots of folks talking.

  6. My mom-in-law is freaking out about it, too, saying we shouldn’t go outside with the kids, blah blah. I just laugh, and that makes her even madder — go figure…

    And the worst part about it is that everybody who hears a noise outside now is spreading rumors that it’s the cougar. A friend of mine who actually lives up on the butte, not too far from where the cougar supposedly was, and she said she heard noises underneath her deck, and was afraid that the cougar was under there waiting to get her. The offending noise under her deck? A raccoon (which are viscious little bastards in their own right).

    I do remember the cougar they had a while back in NE Bend (that was shot and killed and had the ODFW with a "Look what I just killed" jackass on the front page of the Bulletin) was actually about 50 feet from my bedroom window (just over my backyard fence).

    But back to point, yes, the cougar coverage is hilarious. 🙂

  7. Barney- I actually saw the stories on the KTVZ website, the first of them was good. Like I said, makes me long for the Barney-at-Bend.com-days. 😉

    There’s a tinge of sensationalism to the reporting… it hasn’t been Oprah-level or anything, but I still gotta shake my head when I hear it.

  8. Jake- yeah, I remember that cougar, as well. It pissed me off that they had to have that jackass, as you called him (I’m not that kind), going on about his kill. Shot it while it was sleeping. Real brave, that.

    And raccoons, yeah… I’d be more bothered with a raccoon or a badger in the yard than a cougar, I think. Little bastards.

  9. So that’s what’s been happening to the feral cats on campus!

    Oh, and make yourself big, be intimidating, make noise.

  10. Jon-thanks, just keep in mind that KTVZ IS working on an upgrade to the Website. Might not have the breadth and depth of content I did when it was all I did – how could it? But how about VIDEO segments for those folks who miss the news, etc.? Hopefully this summer…

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