Just to fill you in on the other mountain lion kill that happened in the valley:
It occurred on our property on Christmas Eve 1999. Dave Markham was boarding his llamas on our property as he had done for several years. On Christmas Eve day, he came by to pick up the llamas and take them back to his property, but he could not find one of them. I had been home all day cooking and had not noticed anything suspicious except that the llamas were standing at the fence all in row making their clicking sounds. They are strange little animals and I thought they were just anxious to be going back to their winter home. Dave looked all over the property, but could not find any sign of a broken fence or any other unusual activity.
The next morning my husband decided that he would check it out. He strolled to the back of the property where our '59 Chevy Impala was parked and was stopped in his tracks by a low snarl. He looked toward the Chevy and sitting on a pile of snow was a large mountain lion. Simply by instinct he started slowly backing up, and keeping his eye on the lion, he made his way to our backyard.
We were/are fortunate to have Maurice Hornocker, the famous big cat expert, as our neighbor. We called him and he immediately came over and set up scopes in our kitchen and went out and took many pictures. He was very excited by the event because he'd never seen a mountain lion in a neighborhood with a kill.
Your own Dick Dorworth came down to do a story and take pictures. While he was sneaking along the fence line next to the Broadford Slough, intent on getting photos, we watched and he suddenly did an about-face and started back toward the house. When he got back he reported that he had glanced over and realized that he was being stalked by another lion. It turned out that she was the mother of the "cub" who was guarding their kill. They had buried it and would feed on it and then she would go out and look for other game.
We were lucky enough to watch this whole show for the next five days, and when it was done they did just walk off into the willows. It was an unforgettable Christmas and a great Christmas gift.
Sharon Parker
Bellevue
