Sean C. Morgan
At least one Foster School parent is still concerned about cougar sightings around the school In August and again in October.
She plans to deal with it if no one else will, Karen Van Epps-Shreve said. She knows of three sightings.
Her son, Tyler Harden, eighth grade, spotted the mountain lion, she said, but the first sighting was by the custodian at Foster School.
She said other children have seen it too.
“With it being by the school, and they’re (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) not doing anything about it, I’m (ticked),” Van Epps-Shreve said. She has been told it might have been a bobcat. “I don’t care if it’s a bobcat or cougar. It doesn’t matter.”
It was seen once at the school, then a few days later, Harden saw it on the grassy knoll to the southeast of Foster’s athletic field.
“It was still around and nobody did anything about it,” Van Epps-Shreve said. “I’ll shoot it. I’d love to have it on my wall. If I get arrested for it, too bad, if it saves the life of a kid.
“They (cougars) are cool, but when they’re hanging around by my back door, it makes me nervous.”
Van Epps-Shreve and friends have walked around the area looking for the cougar. She said she saw a paw print once.
“Foster School called the game commission, and it did no good,” Van Epps-Shreve said. “A week later, I myself called, and they said they would send trappers. It has not been done. I have no hunting license, but I am going cougar hunting unless I can get some support here.”
The first sighting was in August when the custodian and a teacher saw it walking down the railroad track, Foster Principal Gloria Mittleman said. They described the cat as standing just higher than the knee.
Then the junior high student reported seeing the mountain lion in October. He went to the school and told the custodian, and with Mittleman, they went up and looked around but didn’t see it.
Several students reported looking through classroom windows and seeing the cougar again, but the teacher did not see the cat that time.
Mittleman contacted Sweet Home Police and was referred to the game officer with Oregon State Police in Albany.
She learned more about cougars, and that “the fear that’s there is often exaggerated,” Mittleman said. She was told that if the school has another confirmed sighting by an adult to notify police, who will deal with it according to their policies.
Authorities had planned to track the lion, but the rainy weather made tracking impossible, Mittleman said. The school sent notes home to parents to warn them of the sightings.
For suggestions, Van Epps-Shreve asks people to write her at 1379 56th Ave., Sweet Home, OR 97386.