KC the Cougar at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

 Growing up in the 'back woods' of the Ozarks I had always known them as Mountain Lions.  As a kid I had seen one in the wild in the hills around Branson and Hollister Missouri.  My aunt and uncle have a few hundred acres there with most of it being undisturbed wilderness. There are a lot of hills with deer which is the main food source for the wild cougar. As kids my brothers and cousins and I traipsed the woods all the time.  My grandfather ran cattle over large hills that were mostly wilderness too.  Once while clearing brush off of the fence line we came face to face with one.  It stared at us and then disappeared in a flash into the woods.  I thought it was beautiful but for the rest of the summer my grandfather did not let me take to motorcycle out in the hills alone.  he always said it was because of the mountain lion we had seen. They are truly beautiful big cats.  To see one in the wild is indescribable.