Life in the West

A weekly column by
Jim Headley
Citizen Publisher and Founder

Saturday Lisa and I went out for a walk in the countryside.
While travelling down the irrigation ditch road on the south side of Dome Rock, my trusty dog Sammie was out front as usual running ahead and stopping only to return to us. Sammie would then run out in front of us again.
On an average three-mile walk, she probably runs a good six to seven miles as she is going side to side and back and forth.
After walking a couple miles down the road I saw large tracks in the mud of the irrigation ditch. Wait a minute, I thought. Those are some very large tracks.
I photographed them from the road but I had to investigate further.
I wondered what could have made these large tracks and I carefully climbed down the ditch bank.
The prints were four-and-a-half inches long and a good four inches wide.
I photographed them further at closer range.
We left, convinced that we had a mountain lion in the area. The prints were fairly fresh and we became nervous as we approached some abandoned buildings at Lisa’s family’s old homestead.
We didn’t stay very long as even a mere movement of a rabbit received immediate attention from our cautious minds.
After returning to the farm house, a moment of brilliance hit me.
If these tracks were made by a mountain lion we need to prove it, I thought. For years we’ve all been hearing that mountain lions stalk the Scotts Bluff National Monument area. Maybe this finally proves it.
The sun was going down as the afternoon drew to an end.
After dropping Sammie off at my house, we quickly headed for a hardware store. We needed supplies to track this mountain lion.
Plaster of Paris was purchased and we picked up flashlights and coffee cans at the house.
Mixing up a large batch of Plaster of Paris at the farm, you could easily tell that Lisa and I were both nervous but excited.
We were headed into the moonlight with nothing more than flashlights and a coffee can of plaster with a mountain lion in the area.
After driving down the road and locating the tracks again, we both traversed the irrigation banks to measure, photograph and cast the tracks.
It was like something out of the pages of a detective show as we carefully gathered evidence.
Plaster of Paris doesn’t exactly dry quickly when the thermometer is around 20 degrees.
We left it for a couple hours and returned to town to make dinner.
Dinner was a big hit as Lisa made her amazing meatloaf. I would pass up a well-made steak for Lisa’s meatloaf any day as it is like nothing else on the planet.
After two hours we grabbed some plastic grocery bags and a hand rake and drove back to the site of the tracks. It was about 8 p.m. and I asked Lisa to remain on the road next to the truck and hold a flashlight while I crawled into the ditch to retrieve the castings.
If that mountain lion was around I wanted her to have a way out.
The entire time both our heads bobbed left and right as we scanned the horizon for the attack of a wild predator. We were not in our element but his. The cat appeared to be rather large based on the size of these prints.
Our vision was limited to no further than what our puny flashlights could reach. I was also in the irrigation ditch with no knowledge of the prairie above me.
Though in a big hurry, I carefully dug out the castings from the frozen mud and placed each one into a bag. I carefully handed the castings to Lisa and we got out of there quickly.
Finally safe from the mountain lion and back in the protection of the house, we sat the prints aside to harden overnight.
In the morning I arose to clean off the castings with a toothbrush and do a lot of research about mountain lions on the Internet.
To say I was excited would be an understatement as I spent at least 45 minutes cleaning off the castings.
Alas, after all this hard effort and adventure, I discovered the prints not to be from an endangered mountain lion but from a lowly domesticated dog.
The evidence was clear without even consulting a tracking expert that a very large dog was what we had been tracking.
If you’re not laughing by now, please know that we are.
We behaved like nervous children as we stalked this elusive creature into the night.
At times it was reminded me of the old episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom that I used to watch as a child.
For a second there, I was like old Jim Fowler in the bush of Australia, though Lisa is far more attractive than Marlin Perkins ever dreamed of being.
Nevertheless, we have some fantastic souvenirs from our wild adventure. Yep, I have three paperweights of domesticated dog prints to adorn my office for years to come.
They will bring me joy for decades and remind me of our special adventure.
At least the castings came out well and I learned how to make them in case this happens again.
Oh, elusive mountain lion, where are thou wild cougar?