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. |
