Down on the Farm

By Diana Hooley

My husband and I drink our morning coffee in a nook surrounded by large windows that face the Snake River. We see the sun rise over the river: the dreary winter suns and the movie star-like summer suns. As dawn approaches, reeds and willows on the river bank become dark silhouettes.

One morning not long ago, a new silhouette appeared. It was moving slowly, about thirty feet away.

“What is that?” I said to my husband as I pointed out the window.

Dale gasped. “That’s a cougar!”

With Idaho’s burgeoning population and growing cities and recreational areas, it’s easy to forget we still live in a wild state with wild creatures. Living rurally as I do in the Hammett area, I’ve had my share of encounters with rattlesnakes, raccoons, and coyotes.

Once on a hike I even saw a bobcat that observed me curiously before leaping up the hill [see “Lost to the World,” IDAHO magazine, April 2019]. But in the forty-five years I’ve lived here, I had never seen a cougar.