Excuse Me, Mountain Lion?

Once upon a time at the workplace in Colorado, a New York State transplant, had a new experience. When you move from a ‘known’ to a new ‘unknown’ there are things that don’t come up in research. In the 90s, Denver and surrounding area was in a building boom. Lots of talent from California and New York and tons of new business. As an HR Manager, I’m responsible for the human population at my organization. I was working in Golden, at the base of the Rocky Mountains. It was summer. 

Our Warehouse Manager stopped by my office to impart news, as he knew I worked late. He said, “there’s a mountain lion close, in the area. Keep you eyes open when you are leaving for the day and either stay inside or get to your car.” Then walk away. He drop that and walked away. I literally had no thoughts or words or comprehension of what Logan just dropped so casually. In New York, based on the area you live deer, ducks, woodchucks, and the like don't bother anyone. At that moment, I decided it had to be a joke. Walking out I laughed looking around. Mountain lion, ridiculous!

Next day everyone was chatting about two small local dogs that were gone, miss from the area a few miles away. Assumptions it was the big cat. The next day, they proved to be right. I was walking out with a lab tech, when he blocked me and pulled me to halt, in a loud hush “no sudden moves.” A girl from any part of New York State, was about to snark bark for that sudden stop.

Until I saw a big cat in the parking lot. Just standing there. There were no zoo bars between us. Only 50 feet of wide-open asphalt and an almost dead tree-bush between us. It was big. Flash backs to what I thought I remember their species size to be - as not close to what was there in the parking lot. It literally felt like time stopped. I'm glad my body knew to breathe, because if that was a conscious activity on my part, I've have passed out from lack of breathing. It was just a few minutes.

It looked at us, looked away, and looked back standing there. Then just wandered away, towards the back of the building. Tech said, let's get to our vehicles and get out of here. I went on autopilot as we walked, the thought ringing in my head "did we just get insulted by a big cat, that didn't think we were worthy of food?" In seriousness, I learned a lot from this experience. I am still hyper vigilant of walking to my car a by myself – regardless of if rural or urban environments.

I learned it was not uncommon for them to come down to the front range, if food was scarce. They normally preyed on larger animals like deer or elks, but would take rabbits, dogs, bird, etc. based on their food source needs. In my years in Colorado; I almost hit a hyena, witnessed several small tornados and learned more than I wanted to ever know about a weather event called a cloudburst.