By Steve Hubrecht
A photo of a big cat outside Bosley’s by Pet Valu in downtown Invermere caused a bit of a buzz last week. Not just any cat, mind you, but a cougar that just happened to be sauntering down the sidewalk.
Store employee Matt Hobbs was near the front of the store, where it fronts onto 13th Street (not far from Eddie Mountain Memorial Arena and the BC Liquor Store) at about 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, April 17. Hobbs looked up, saw the cougar and quickly snapped a photo, which store manager Jill MacEachern posted online to let the public know about the cat.
“Not to send anyone into high alert mode … just be aware this lil one is cruisin’ the strip,” wrote MacEachern.
The photo promptly got plenty of views and comments, not just within Invermere, but from other parts of the East Kootenay as well.
A few people coming into Bosley’s the next day mentioned the photo, thanking MacEachern and Hobbs for raising awareness about the cougar strolling through downtown, expressing hope the feline remains safe,” MacEachern told the Pioneer on the morning of April 18. Several online commenters joked about the cougar looking for a pet snack, she added.
Columbia-Kootenay Conservation Officer Sgt. Greg Kruger told the Pioneer the cougar was the subject of multiple reports during the afternoon of April 17. Most of the reports indicated the cougar was hanging out in the southern edge of downtown, not too far from the Invermere Inn and the dentist offices. Columbia Valley RCMP, Kruger and other conservation officers, and the local cougar houndsman and his dogs responded to the reports and found the cougar up a tree in a backyard along 14th Street. Kruger prepared to tranquilize the animal, but it escaped over a fence and headed up to 13th Street (where it was photographed by Hobbs).
Given the feline was now in an area with high pedestrian traffic, the conservation officers and RCMP made efforts to warn the public and to get them to stay indoors. As they did so, the cougar moved on again, ending up north of the arena on the long brushy, wooded and grassy hillside that slopes down to Lake Windermere.
They tried to track the cougar with the hounds but were unable to locate it, and eventually had to give up. The next morning on April 18, a resident reported seeing the cougar drinking from and swimming in the lake at the same spot. The conservation officers and the cougar houndsman returned, and the hounds picked up the scent and tracked it to a small gully where Kruger was able to tranquilize it with a dart gun.
When Kruger spoke with the Pioneer on the afternoon of April 18, the cougar was recovering in a large, live trap in a warm, secure storage area.
“It was emaciated and in poor condition,” said Kruger, adding he estimated the cat is seven to nine months old.
“At that age it still needs its mother to survive. Unfortunately it somehow became separated from its mother. We have no idea how, or where the mother is, or if she is even alive,” said Kruger.
Local veterinarian Mark Zehnder assessed the cougar and gave it an intravenous (IV) with saline solution to help rehydrate it.
When the Pioneer spoke again with Kruger on Monday, April 21, the young cougar had passed away the previous morning. “Unfortunately it could not recover,” said Kruger, adding that more detailed assessment revealed the cat to “be even more emaciated and in even worse shape than we initially thought. It is very hard for a cougar kitten to survive without its mother for any length of time.”
