Maybe I should start using a cane again...

Apparently a parent whose child attends our school saw a cougar on Monday morning while driving his daughter to school.

It's not the first one that's been seen out there, although it's been awhile since one has been sighted.

But we're out in the country there. Or as country as you can get living on the edges of the city. There's a lot of open land, many different domestic animals and other types of food for them to eat and lots of places to hide.

Often when I drive into the parking lot, I see a coyote or two running to get away from my headlights.
They're anxious to avoid me.

I don't really want to stop and have a conversation with any of them, either.

I watch to make sure they're really on the run before I get out of my car, but I'm not too worried about them.

They're sleek and well fed... I'm sure it's pretty easy for them to make a living out there. I never seem to get the camera out in time to capture one, but someday, maybe.

A mountain lion worries me a little more... but with so many chickens and puppies and so much dog food/cat food etc out there, I am pretty sure they're interested in easier meals than a 40 something fat housewife with a gimpy leg.

Evidently Liam* thinks he has a USDA choice stamp on his forehead, though. He is, to put it simply, terrified.

The poor kid doesn't even want to walk across the little breezeway in a group to wash his hands for snack. I talked him into it by letting him look out the door both left and right and promising to walk between him and the playground while we went over there. So that if there were any dangers at all, they'd get me and not him.

Handwashing was a success. No one was eaten.

But he came and sat with me just before reading time and said, "So, how's your knee doing?"

I said it was doing pretty well, and that it was feeling better all the time.

And Liam asked, "Do you think you might still need to bring your cane to work again?"

I didn't know. Told him probably not.

And he looked disappointed.

So I told him, "You look disappointed! How come?"

And he said, "Well, I was thinking it would be a good weapon if a cougar attacks one of us. You could save our life with it."

So I told him that cougars are afraid of people. That they don't usually go anywhere near groups.

That the chances of a cougar being on the school grounds was almost zero. "Cougars don't like spelling tests," I said. "And if you try to teach them math, it makes them grumpy. So they tend to avoid schools."

And it was funny and made him laugh... but he was still really scared. He made his dad take him out the front door of the school building so they'd be closer to the parking lot so he could "run fast to the car if it attacks."

So far Liam has not been attacked or eaten.
I saw him at our program Thursday.

He was one of the kids who ran to the door to hug me upon my arrival.

I love my job.