Our possible brush with cryptozoology

[nonionay]

Before I forget, and the creature tracks us down to eat us in our sleep, I should tell you about the Thing.
On the bumpy road back from Skyline Divide, an animal bounded across the road a ways in front of us. We all saw this thing. It ran like a predator and was too square to be a deer, too big to be a fox or bobcat, too dark to be a cougar. Too quadrupedal to be a sasquatch. When I saw it, my brain said, "big dog!" but what the hell would a dog be doing out there? My bet's on cougar, personally. It was Irish Setter red, and while cougars aren't usually that dark, I don't think it's impossible.

Comments

[samildanach.livejournal.com]

Sure, I understand cougars can be that color. They're more commonly dun, but red isn't unheard of.

[bolddeciever.livejournal.com]

"Cougar coloring is plain (hence the Latin concolor) but can vary greatly between individuals and even between siblings. The coat is typically tawny, but ranges to silvery-grey or reddish, with lighter patches on the under body including the jaws, chin, and throat."

(Wikipedia, my emphasis)

So yeah, probably. Pretty impressive animals; on a camping trip when I was a kid we saw one once a little closer than is comfortable (still at least fifty yards away, but "comfortable" gets relative when camping with small children near cougars. It was all pretty exciting to Dina and I at the time; I understand a little better now why Mom and Dad were so nervous the rest of that trip :P)

[reicreature.livejournal.com]

Coyote maybe?

[criada.livejournal.com]

Too big, I think, but maybe. Do they hang out in the mountains?

[nuin.livejournal.com]

There is also the possibility of black bear. They can come in many shades, some of which are red.