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| A cougar, commonly called a puma, panther, catamount, or a long-tailed cat. |
Rumors of a large mountain lion-like cat in Harris or Chambers County, Texas surface every so often with many credible eyewitnesses, including my wife and one of her best friends. Two friends of mine swear to the fact that they are here. Some call them panthers, others know them as pumas, or long-tailed cats.
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| Where the big animal was spotted walking behind the houses on El Rancho in Chaparral Village, Baytown, Texas. |
Behind my house are over 70 acres of woods and yesterday, my wife and her long time friend were sitting on the patio when they spied a large, tawny colored animal "walking like a cat" on the pipeline behind the house. "It was as big as a dog and had a tail." My wife told me and her friend concurred.
"The dogs were on the far side of the yard and didn't sense or see it and we jumped up and ran for the back fence. It disappeared into the woods without a sound." My wife explained.
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| Another view of the pipeline lane behind Buffalo Trail in Baytown, Texas. |
My longtime friend Barbara Pugh has seen them many times, as she grew up around Baytown and Beach City and swears locals there know they are here. It was not all that long ago that reports of big cats were again sighted out by the dump. I saw a bobcat there a few years ago and my brother saw a bobcat run across Barkuloo Road in between Chaparral Village and Crockett Elementary.
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| A Bobcat like this one was spotted crossing Barkuloo Road close to Crockett Elementary and Chaparral Village by my brother. |
This is the same stretch of woods where the pipeline is that may or may not harbor a "long-tailed cat." We often hear a large pack of coyotes yipping and howling when a train blows it's horn, but they are elusive and I've never actually saw one behind the house. It just goes to show that large animals can coexist with us and we don't know they are around. Coyotes also can and will kill a pet, as will feral hogs.
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| Feral hogs and coyotes both frequent the woods behind Chaparral Village, but are rarely seen. |
I know one fact that no one can dispute and is possibly connected with the big cat sighting. Not a week goes by without someone placing signs to report a missing dog in Chaparral Village. Occasionally one is found, but most often, the pet is never seen again. We lost one like this here about 15 years ago. It ran into the woods and vanished without a sign.
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| Signs are common in Chaparral Village of lost pets. This one was taken the same day as this article was published. |
We have seen and heard feral hogs on the pipeline and I once saw a great horned owl perched on the wire behind my house. My dogs will stand by my back fence at night and bark and bark, facing the woods and I often take a powerful flashlight and scan about, but never see anything except rabbits.
I have not seen a rabbit in two months. Do we have a long-tailed cat out there? I have not seen one, but others have. I plan to place a game camera out very soon and see if I can't get a photo or two of what our intrepid visitor looks like. In the meantime, we watch.
