So we had some kind of animal lurking about, possibly a mountain lion, which is not a shock because we live smack up against a giant forest. Folks have spotted cougars on our hill time and time again.

The weird part is this critter has apparently decided to live in our backyard. Cougars have a ginormous range, all kinds of territory to patrol and deer to munch, so it’s rare to see them at all. This mystery cat is hanging around for eons.

In the same week, here’s this guy who now lives under a rock by the mailbox.

Plus five bazillion hummingbirds have taken up shop next door, which is great. Hummingbirds are fearless. They’re like, “Yo, I’m so cute and fast, nobody can touch me. Feed me more sugar water, human!”

HOWEVER: Back to the mystery monster, which freaked out our Hound of the Baskervilles a few times. He keeps barking at the tall grass and trees as if he smells a demon, and this is dog who happily went after a raccoon in the yard even after the went all claw on him, ENTER THE DRAGON style. Do mountain lions eat people? Yeah, sometimes. Wouldn’t want one to randomly pounce on my people.

Now this mystery critter has been captured in a photograph so fuzzy, it makes the Zapruder Film look like 4K high def.

It looks like either an adult bobcat or a baby cougar. Hard to say.

Here are two videos from the Series of Tubes, one of baby cougars and one of an adult bobcat. From the photo versus the videos, I’m guessing bobcat, though I’ve seen other photos and videos where baby cougars have pointier ears, more like the critter in the fuzzy photo, which doesn’t seem to have the short tail of a bobcat.

Won’t know for certain unless we go find it and ask for ID and maybe where its registered to vote. I won’t ask if its Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or vegeterian because hey, that’s personal.

Videos for comparison:

Baby cougars

Bobcat

Sidenote: For years, coworkers and friends in Olympia told me tales of a woman who walks a pet bobcat at night, though she tends to let the bobcat go off-leash, because FREEDOM. Buddy of mine got cornered by it while he walked to the parking lot. He was not amused. A different friend shot a photo of it outside the grocery store. Yeah, the woman takes her pet bobcat shopping when she’s low on 2 percent organic milk. Also, you would not believe how ginormous a bobcat’s paws get. If they had to buy shoes, they’d be size 16EEE.