They say cats have nine lives, but our lovely four-month-old kitten got no time to prove that phrase.
It was a sunny winter afternoon when out of nowhere a cougar entered our property crapped and killed the poor little thing and then was over the fence and into the bush.
We stood only a few meters away and watched in horror as the drama happened. It took us a few minutes to realize that we had not watched a scene from a National Geography Documentary but had seen bloody reality; sad and shocked we phoned the Conservation Office.
Two weeks later, at six in the morning, we heard rumbling and noise from the deck in front of our house. We checked and could see the mess: the cougar had damaged the cathouse, killed and taken away our old, faithful Mieze, who was a family member for 18 years. She did not deserve to end up as breakfast. Angry and furious we called the Conservation Officer.
Only two nights later we heard a noise at two o'clock. The security light was on, and when we looked out of the window, we saw that big dangerous predator sniffing around the deck for another meal. He looked at us through the window without fear or hesitation before he slowly vanished into the darkness.
The Conservation Officer came the same afternoon from Castlegar and followed the tracks with his dogs to find the predator. We had high hopes that the horror and the sleepless nights could come to an end, but in the evening we got the frustrating news that the hunt was unsuccessful and the cougar was still on the loose.
That hungry, dangerous predator seems to have no fear of humans, so we hope that no fatal accident will happen around Fauquier.