When camping in
national parks and forests, of course we’re cautious about predators. We store
food in bear boxes or the RV fridge, watch for mountain lions when we hike, look
behind rocks for rattlesnakes before sitting down, eye scraggly-looking strangers
with initial suspicion. Just as we don’t
display jewelry or electronic gear when walking through city streets, we don’t
invite trouble in the boondocks.
At home we feel
safe in general. Our home bordering the El
Dorado National Forest is hidden from the road and seems immune even from the
occasional El Dorado County crime. So,
when we saw a paw print in the pollen on a bedroom window, we were startled.
What could have made a print that large, more than four feet above the ground? It
was definitely nothing human.
Our first thought
was the neighbor’s large dog, which tends to wander through our yard and leave
his paw prints on everything, but we compared the print with the original dog
paws, and realized this animal was much larger.
Could it have
been a black bear? Bears do wander into the surrounding area once in a while,
and the paw looked like the right size. Bears are notorious for tearing apart
anything that might contain food, and that might give us a clue. In a nearby area not long ago, a bear broke
into a cabin where the owner had left a liquor supply. After smashing a bottle
of rum, the bear promptly lapped up the rum, got very drunk, and tore apart
everything in the cabin. So we looked around for any disturbance, found our
compost pile looked untouched, remembered that we have no liquor, and concluded
that our visitor was not a bear.
That left us with
the frightening main possibility that a mountain lion had been there. The print
seems to match those I found online, but I am no expert on identifying animal
tracks. (Or scat, aside from deer and dog poop.) We plan to have the county
trapper look at a photo of the print soon. In the meantime, we will be a little
more cautious walking in the woods—or even walking out the front door.
