Although it has been a year or two since a neighbor has sighted one, they are not an uncommon occurance. A good friend of my wife's was hiking about 15 miles from here last February when she turned around to see a mountain lion in full stalk mode, ready to pounce. She and her companion did all the right things: didn't run, looked big, waved sticks, yelled... Of their two dogs, one ran away, the other helped them scare the lion into the woods. But it took several minutes to scare it away.

I live in the Northern Front Range of Colorado. To be more exact, I live right on the geologic transition from the great plains to the Rocky Mountains. Just west of our neighborhood is the ridge of uplifted sandstone known as the Dakota Hogback. That's open space around here, lots of room for creatures great and small to do their thing. West of that it is forest all the way up to timberline.

The bucks in the yard have been putting on a show for us the last couple of days with their testosterone feuled autumnal atlerian battles.