The amazing sight of a cougar with a dead deer in the driveway of their Colwood home greeted Chelsea Amaris Lee and her family Sunday morning.
Lee said she was the first one up at the Matilda Drive residence, opening the living-room blinds about 7 a.m. without seeing much outside.
But when her husband took a look out of the window about half an hour later, he saw the cougar, remarking: “Oh my goodness!”
He sat watching with the couple’s four-year-old daughter as the cougar prowled around the street. It was when the animal walked back into their yard that Lee finally spotted the deer lying next to their truck.
“I didn’t see it until after the fact because we were looking at the cougar,” she said.
Lee said her daughter was enthralled with seeing a real cougar so nearby.
“I said you’ll probably never see another one this close this clearly,” she said. “It was kind of startling on a Sunday morning.”
The cougar quickly took off, leaving the deer behind.
Matilda Drive is right next to the Royal Roads University trails and there have been warnings about cougars in the vicinity, but Lee said she had never seen one until Sunday.
She later found out that there was another Sunday morning sighting on an adjacent street of two cougars together.
Lee said the B.C. Conservation Officer Service was contacted and she posted a picture on the Colwood Community Association Facebook page to make sure neighbours were aware.
“There’s a lot of seniors that walk around in this neighbourhood,” she said.
A few hours after the sighting, Lee saw a man walking his dog and warned him that their were had been cougars around.
The City of Colwood’s website advises that cougars, black bears and other animals are part of the local ecosystem, and they may be encountered from time to time.
The site says people should be aware of there surrounding in natural areas, and keep children close and pets on a leash.
If you see a cougar when you are outside, stay calm, keep the cougar in view and back away slowly.
