1. Take a gun- I used to paint with a friend that carried a gun- it was always in the back of my mind- oh yes, we have a gun- if ANYTHING attacks, we will be ok. Of course there are many things that could go wrong when trying to shoot a leaping mountain lion; I just tried to not think about it.
2. Bear spray- yes, mountain lions do not like bear spray which is really a spray consisting of pepper spray and I don't think there is a creature on earth that wouldn't be deterred from that. One downfall- the animal, human or wild, has to get rather close to be sprayed. Oh, but you say, bear spray can spray from 15 to 20 feet. That is still too close for me.
3. Travel in a large group of painters. Yes, this will detour a mountain lion- - they don't want to take on a large group of screaming, frenzied painters.... would you?
4. Take a dog. Cats hate dogs- even big cats. Now a big cat is not going to be afraid of your miniature schnauzer or poodle so you need to have some common sense here. Hound dogs, labs, german shepherds or even monster big dogs like great danes- that's what I'm talking about.
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| This is Buck - my 6 month old Lab Well, yesterday, I went painting at the last minute- took off in the middle of the afternoon- decided to paint at Penitente Canyon - I knew that I could call my painting friends, Coni and David but they would have a difficult time trying to make it to Penitente at the last minute so I took my dog, who ended up being a great painting companion- he stayed close and growled alot at probably what was a mouse or two- but it made me feel safe. I don't really know how well he would handle a large cat showing up but we were lucky and didn't have to worry about it. |
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| There are lots of wonderful rocks at Penitente Canyon- if I were mountain lion, I would want to hang out here for awhile. |
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| The 14x18 painting that I painted at Penitente. |
8 comments:
Good advice. nice painting. The weather has been perfect for it.
Thanks Blain! It was so nice that I didn't even wear a coat. It truly was a perfect day!
We have problems once in a while on the other side of the mountain. Usually it's a female cat that has a couple mouths to feed. A fellow who has cattle south of Rye had a couple calves killed a few years back. They never caught the animal. I have heard them calling on calm days in early spring, calling to each other to mate, I would guess. I've never seen one though in ten years of being here. The perfect dog for keeping a mountain lion away is the Anatolian Shepard. They weigh about 145 pounds and are very stoic. They just stand up proud and match threat with counter threat. The don't bark a lot. If I were a cat I would know that a barker is just announcing how insecure it is. A big, silent unafraid dog means business. If you look what they do for a living in Turkey you might find the gruesome sight of a sheperd holding up a dead wolf.
Your right...about...checking for cats at Penetente I was up there at the site where they have a site sign, restroom etc...I was there to take pictures and paint artwork for BLM for the signage. As we were walking we heard a very weird kinda of howl from the rocks about 150 feet ahead of us...never found out for sure but It put a chill up my spine just thinking of CAT and BIG:) Evelyn
Yes...I was there doing some art for the BLM Penetente signage...taking pics etc and I beleive there was a cat watching us from some of the rocks....the sound was shriel and kinda wild ... Never saw it but felt a kinda errie presence of something...
Just kept walking. the gun and dog sound like a good idea:)
I agree Evelyn- it just seems like a great place for the big cats to hang out- especially during the slow season...
Your painting is beautiful.
Thank you Terry!
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