PORT ANGELES – A cougar found itself up a tree over the weekend.
The full-grown female cougar was spotted outside of Eric and Gerri Olson’s house in Port Angeles.
“She was treed in the morning about maybe 6 a.m. by my two dogs,” Gerri said from her Emery Lane house on Monday.
She and her family – which includes Tyler, 14, and David, 17 – watched the cougar as it sat in the tree for about three or four hours before it gingerly climbed down and retreated to the forest nearby their home.
No one was hurt or even confronted by the cougar, who seemed to Gerri to be elderly.
The cougar was about 75 feet up the tree.
“She looked like she was crying, stuck up there,” Gerri said.
“She kept looking down, like she really wanted to get down.
“There was moisture on her nose, so it even looked like tears.”
Seeing wildlife isn’t unusual, said both Gerri and Eric.
They routinely see coyotes and other animals because their property is near Department of Natural Resource land.
The wild animals are just part of living near wilderness, Gerri said.
“We deal with wild animals every day,” she said.
“There is never a dull moment out here.”
But, “that was the first cat,” Eric said. “That was kind of cool.”
He tried to call the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and other agencies but could reach no one, he said, and since there was no emergency, he didn’t call 9-1-1.
“It would have been real easy to call someone if it’d been chasing my kid around,” he said.
Gerri said she wasn’t worried about the cougar.
“I was glad the dogs weren’t hurt or anything, but I worry more about the coyotes who try and lure the dogs out than the cougars.”
Her two dogs – she declined to give their names – were in the backyard when the cougar strolled in and the family figures they chased the wild animal up an old growth fir tree.
“I don’t think she’ll be coming back here again,” Gerri said.
Her nephew Nick Alder, who lives next door, snapped a few pictures.
“My cousin and his dad contacted me around 9 a.m. to come see something amazing,” Alder wrote in an e-mail to the Peninsula Daily News.
The cougar stayed in the tree until after the dogs were escorted away.
“They were really obedient,” Gerri said.
“I was really proud of them.”
On the other hand, her cat, Plays-A-Lot, had other ideas.
The black and white cat strolled toward the tree to confront the cougar, who was on her property.
The family quickly scooped it up.
“She was just going right toward that cougar,” Gerri said.
