The story behind the artwork

I can thank a cougar for meeting my husband. He had seen it a few weeks before we met for the first time. I was online reading his account of running into a mountain lion while on a hike in the Spring Mountains near where we live. It was a very well written report, and I thought to myself, I've got to meet this guy! Soon afterwards he led a hike, and I went along, and the rest is history!

Often we hike in the Spring Mountains, Red Rock Canyon and other wilderness areas and we get that funny feeling. The feeling that we're not alone, and we are walking in someone else's territory. Someone who could rip our limbs off it it chose to. We imagine this large cat is lying in the scrub just a few leaps away, perhaps watching us as we fumble about awkwardly, soft and weak in comparison to this predatory mass of muscle, teeth, and claws. They are so brilliantly camouflaged they could be only a few feet away without being detected. Especially I find it unnerving when I stray behind the group to take a few photos, or fuss with my pack. Once separated from the group I would have no chance of survival. The cat knows this. This is when I find the hairs on my arm start to rise and I quickly jog to catch up.

My cat is a cougar. It is dusk in the canyon. He is lying in the shadows and having a rest, perhaps after taking a long drink in the wash. Something suddenly attracts his attention, the distant sound of footsteps. The scent of something foreign to this habitat, yet common. It is one that doesn't belong here anymore. It is a human. The cat is curious, so he lies in wait. He sniffs the air and raises his magnificent head. He is feeling an instinctual urge well up inside him. The human is slow and stumbles. It whines and whimpers as it passes by. The cat flexes its paws as it imagines an attack, then out of pure complacency, he lets the moment pass.

cougar
acrylic on canvas
36x48"

Additional Links:

Information from PBS on mountain lion attacks.