Brian Kelly bkelly@ptleader.conm
That cat has not come back.
A cougar that was sighted near the baseball field on the Quilcene school campus May 26 has not been seen again since, Quilcene …
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Brian Kelly
bkelly@ptleader.conm
That cat has not come back.
A cougar that was sighted near the baseball field on the Quilcene school campus May 26 has not been seen again since, Quilcene Principal Sean Moss said Monday.
Moss said a parent of a student at the school saw the animal on the school grounds the evening of May 26, and the incident followed a sighting earlier in the day of a cougar near the bridge on Linger Longer Road south of town.
The cougar seen both times appeared healthy.
“It ran away as soon as it saw people,” Moss said.
In the days following the sighting at the school, students were told to remain in groups of two or more when outside, and students were asked to stay away from the school track. During recess times, kids were kept near the barked playground area.
Students were also advised to walk in pairs or groups on their way to and from school in the days that followed.
The cougar sighting in Quilcene happened two days before a 9-year-old girl in Eastern Washington was attacked by a cougar while playing hide-and-seek with friends at a camp near Fruitland.
The girl survived the attack, and the cougar was later found and killed.
Moss said cougars have been seen before in Quilcene in recent years.
The school was locked down in late May 2019 after a cougar was seen by a parent across the street from the football field.
Moss said another cougar sighting four or five yeas ago a cougar and her two offspring were seen on the campus during the school day; the animals were in poor health because the mother had lost her canine teeth and couldn’t hunt anymore.
After the recent sighting, the school district reported the incident to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, who said the cougar had probably killed a deer in the area and would return for three or so days to feed off the kill.
“We think it just moved out of the area,” Moss said.
He said it was important for residents to remain vigilant. Moss noted that it’s not unusual for cougars to be in the area, and recalled recent sightings of cougars in the back yards of some homes in the Sequim area.
