I encounter… things that are where they aren’t supposed to be. Living things, I can find in books about North American wildlife. Things like the North American River Otter, which I found Ron Cool quietly watching early one summer’s morning as he hunkered at the Monocacy River’s edge only a few yards from canoers who were snoring the dawn away. Yawning beside him I softly asked what was so interesting. Nodding to the opposite bank, he muttered, “Wait”. I waited. Two otters slide down the muddy bank into the water. They swam about for a couple of minutes then streaked back up the bank only to come sliding back down a moment later.
“There aren’t any otters along this part of the river.” I whispered.
Ron shrugged. “You better tell them.”
We watched them play a bit longer until some awakened sleeper loudly demanded to know what we were looking at. I haven’t seen an otter since.
Then there was the afternoon a stork set down along Middle Creek in the late 1970s. I hadn’t seen a stork since we lived along Topper Road over to Fairfield. Then, the majestic white birds nested on Fred Crum’s chimney each year. I hadn’t seen a stork since we moved in 1964 or ‘65 so finding one startled me, but I at least knew what I was looking at. Sadly, I haven’t seen another since.
Probably the most exciting animal I didn’t get to see was the bobcat, which terrorized some friends for more than a week before suddenly vanishing. That happened in the mid 1990s. The friends were living along the Taneytown Pike, just a few miles out of Emmitsburg, when the huge cat showed up one night late in the fall. The beast circled the house calling out the house cats. Those poor felines were insane with fear and the humans were not much better once they saw the size of the cat as it stood on its hind legs peering in their windows. When I told them a bobcat was stalking them, they thought me insane. (Hey, I wasn’t the one afraid to leave my house after dark.)
I suggested they call the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which they did. The DNR told them there were no bobcats in their area, but if there were, they are a protected species. (Typical DNR response.) I suspected it was a bobcat because I’d been along the Monocracy River years before when one cried out in the depths of the night. When I described the 1 AM scream to friends who keep a cabin in upstate Pennsylvania, they told me they were sure I’d heard a bobcat as they often encountered them in the PA mountains and also heard them in heavily wooded areas along the upper Monocacy.
Why did the bobcat suddenly stop harassing my friends? Because the corn that bordered their house on three sides had been cut to the ground and removed. The cat no longer had cover to travel from the woods to the house so it moved on to safer hangouts.
What brings all this to mind? The cougar, also known as puma, mountain lion, catamount, or panther, which I’ve also not seen, but have heard stories about for years. The latest telling is of a foal with its hide torn from shoulder to knee and a large bite wound on its rump. The storyteller said he could see the claw marks where the hide was first punctured before being stripped down to the knee. The bite mark left fang holes big enough to stick his little finger into.
When I asked where this young horse had been attacked, he told me a story of a pair of very large cats circling his campfire decades ago as he fished along a local body of water. The attack occurred in that general area. He also allowed the area is as unvisited as any place in this region can be and that the owner of the land and horse claims big cats live in the remotest part of his farm- an area people seldom visit.
Do I know there are cougars near Emmitsburg? No. Do I believe they could be living near here? Yep. I’ve seen otters and heard bobcats where they weren’t supposed to be. Bears are spotted on College Mountain from time to time, one even came into town a few years ago. Why wouldn’t I believe cougars live where I’m not supposed to be?
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