DALTON GARDENS — Jeff Fletcher’s dogs generally sleep through the night.
So when they started “going crazy” about 1 a.m. last Friday, he got up and let them outside. Perhaps a deer, as they often jump in his yard.
A few minutes later, they barked again, and he let them back in.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” he said.
Later that morning, preparing to go for a bike ride, he walked out to his shop.
Then, he saw the dead deer next to the side of the shop. It was between trash cans and pinned against the fence.
Fletcher saw bite marks on the side of its neck, and wounds on the shoulder and head.
“It looked like a cougar killed it and was trying to get it back up over the fence out of the yard,” he said.
He believes his dogs likely spooked the big cat before it could complete its task and it left.
Fletcher contacted Fish and Game about the incident before disposing of the carcass.
Later, he posted about it on Facebook: “Not posting to be pro deer, anti cougar or anything else besides to let neighbors know there is a hungry kitty in the area.”
Several people responded and said they saw a cougar around Dalton Gardens before and after the incident. Some also mentioned missing cats and chickens over the years.
“Keep a close eye on your animals and your kids, cougars see you before you see them,” wrote one woman.
“Scary that the cat was in your yard,” wrote another.
But one person wrote the cougar has been around the area for years: “That kitty has been there since 2015 … nothing new seen it dozens of times.”
T.J. Ross, Fish and Game spokesman in the Panhandle Region, said he and two other officers had not heard about the incident.
“However, both officers commented it would not be highly abnormal for a mountain lion to make it into the Dalton Gardens area to hunt for deer,” he wrote. “We have received reports of this sort in past years.”
Ross said Dalton Gardens is on the margin of wilderness and deer are abundant.
“The amount of deer frequenting the Dalton Gardens area could certainly be attractive to a hungry mountain lion up in the Canfield Mountain area,” he wrote.
In 2021, Dalton Gardens considered a plan to allow trained bow hunters to kill deer in city limits. While it had some support, it was criticized as unsafe with a chance of someone being hurt, and didn’t make it into the books.
Fletcher said he won’t be taking any extra security measures after the incident.
He bikes on Canfield Mountain often and has seen cougars and has never had any worries.
And when they bought their home about eight years ago, they knew cougars were around.
“They were here first,” he said.
Cougar reported in Dalton Gardens
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