Kitty? No Rowan, THAT is a BIG mountain lion

I was driving home tonight from work and had just turned on to our little road south of Custer, near Pringle, not really paying attention. The house was just ahead and my two year old son, Rowan, was entertaining me as I glanced now and then at my Blackberry. I saw the deer cross the road out of the corner of my eye on the left and put on the brakes so I would not hit him/her. But it was not a deer, much to my surprise. It was a big (male?) mountain lion just trotting across the road where I would have run him over, with no apparent urgency.

I finally snapped out of my daze and yelled to my son that it was a mountain lion, while I threw down my phone and fumbled for my digital camera in my attache case. I was very slow on the draw and I watched him continue through the creek bottom and up the other side of the road on the hill. I thought to myself that he was just huge, but with his pace and the distance, he just looked like a big kitten. Which is sort of what Rowan started yelling at that point: "Kitty, kitty, roarrr, lion" and by then I found my camera and ran out to try and get a picture, since it had a tracking collar and was such a big fella. Well, I was too slow and by then the deer, the horses and everything else within half a mile, including my own dog and horse down the road were all riled up. I tried to spot it in the grass or treeline and looked for tracks but no sign was found.

So, keep your eyes open down Carroll Creek Road around Red Star Drive or, who knows, if he is a male, he may be just passing through or on the way home. We will certainly be watching the dusk and dawn times with the kids....