HomeCougar Sighting in New Canaan
My wife and I were on our back porch the other day, early morning (Tuesday)having coffee. We live in a very wooded area of New Canaan. There is a game trail that borders our property. We often see deer, occasional turkey's etc on the back property. We live adjacent to New Canaan Land Trust as well. We had thought that we has seen one last year, (same game trail) around the time one was spotted on/near the Merritt Parkway, but it was weird, and we ended up thinking maybe eyes were playing tricks etc.
This "animal" was a cat. I grew up with cats. About the size of a yellow lab (we have a yellow lab), but seemingly longer, with a really long tail. I thought it might be a lynx or a bobcat, but it had the long tail. I could see the triangular nature of the ears, somewhat of a flattened face, no doglike snout, as there are coyotes' in the area. It was silent through the woods, and "loped" along quickly, with purpose. It was about a 12 second experience. It was seriously, a very large cat. Submitted by Ted jenkins
August 29th, 2016 - 13:53
Is this in the same area of town where one was sighted earlier this year? Pictures of tracks and reported to DEEP, but no definitive answer.
August 29th, 2016 - 18:39
No answer given to us by DEEP on request either. You can bet the don’t WANT to reply.
September 1st, 2016 - 06:18
Ted, put a game camera out there! It’s pretty cool to go fetch it every couple weeks , hook it to your tv, and see what’s out there! Quite interesting……and maybe you’ll get a pic of this cat!
October 16th, 2016 - 09:26
Ted-
Do you live by the Valley Rd area? A friend of mine that lives near us on Valley- has also seen a mountain lion cross her backyard. She said she knew it was a mountain lion because it was huge and had a really long tail. She mentioned it to me because I live off Valley. In your sighting I see you mention a land trust and wondered if it was the one near valley by benedict hill. I walk there often with my daughters and have been wondering if a large cat would live around there being it is so secluded.
On a side note, I haven’t seen a mountain Lion but I swear I saw a wolf. My father, husband and I were in my kitchen and my father spotted it first across the pond. It was huge. We’ve had coyote here a bunch over the years and I know what they look like. This one I saw was light in color-gray and white. I’d say the big difference was the long thin legs, coloring and size. All three of us couldn’t believe it. I thought wolves weren’t even in NY again until I did a little research. A farmer killed one in MA recently and the DEEP admit that wolves could be coming from canada into new england. I have noticed our deer sightings have dropped over this last year. Across the pond in our woods- deer used to sleep there esp over the winter. They were not there last year. I made a joke to my sister that maybe we have a large predator in the area- after I heard about the mountain lion and saw what i believe was a wolf- I know why the deer aren’t around my house much!!