“Chadwick”

This is “Chadwick.” It’s a Celtic name meaning “warrior.” Chadwick fights for the rights of others like him. Others who don’t have a voice. If you ever see Chadwick on your travels, know he’s a force to be reckoned with.

According to statistics provided from actual sales of hunting permits, almost 2100 cougars are still being killed each year. This figure does not include all the cougars killed by hunters who do not buy licenses nor report their kills.

I live in rural Pennsylvania where cougars or “mountain lions” are almost akin to the fantastical unicorn. There have been numerous sightings of these gorgeous and secretive creatures but it seems there is a real resistance from the Game Commission to actually admit they are among us. The eastern cougar was thought to be extinct.

My husband was a skeptic. He felt perhaps those sightings were simply people seeing something else and, for many reasons, were convinced they had seen a mountain lion. The mind does tend to play tricks sometimes. Did you notice I said my husband “was” a skeptic?

One morning on his way to work through our rural backwoods, he saw a creature leap across the road unlike anything he had ever seen before. Now I must state my husband is the genius, “science rules” kind of guy. It’s all about the facts ma’am. Something was running through the woods towards the road. My husband stopped as it ran in front of the truck. With tail outstretched it leaped across the road and on through a portion of fallen, timbered woods. He continued to watch as it flew from sight. He was close enough to know what it wasn’t… it wasn’t a deer, a coyote, fox, a dog or a house cat. It wasn’t a bobcat which he had seen many times before in the wild. The size of the cat and power of its muscular structure was mind-blowing. The coloring was undeniable. A cougar has been seen. And I, for one, am a believer.