It's A Comfort To Know One's Prepared.

There are increasingly frequent mountain lion sightings here in the Ozarks.  Our property is in the middle of the National Forest, adjoining an 8000 acre wildlife management area.  We’ve heard the big cats screaming in the night on several occasions, and several winters ago, during a walk along our border with the management area, I discovered where a deer had been run at great speed through the barbed wire fence.  The fence was badly damaged and several posts had been completely overturned.  Fifty yards further down the hill, on an ice covered pond, I discovered several spots where there were impact fissures in the ice, along with hair and pooled blood from the unfortunate buck.  From my pond, there’s a nature trail into the deep woods.  I often walk this trail by myself after dark, serenaded by the hair raising chorus of Bard Owls and all variety of things that go bump in the night or scurry unseen into the darkness. I rarely take this walk without recalling the horrifying screams of the big cats, and the disturbing scene of slaughter on the ice, so I always carry a walking stick and Band-Aids. SC