Cougar Conversation

I enjoyed your article on Cougar Encounters, as well as many other previous articles.

We recently found this photo in a stack of photos kept by our mother. We had never before seen the photo, which probably was taken in the 1930s, nor heard any stories about it.

Our paternal grandfather, Oliver C. Aldrich, is on the right in the photo. An attorney, he was appointed District Attorney of Hidalgo County by Governor Dan Moody, and also served two terms as County Judge of that county. He was an accomplished fisherman and hunter.

Oliver C. Aldrich, III

Cypress, TX

Per your request in the most recent issue of TF&G, I’m forwarding a couple of game cam pics of a big cat taken in August, 2014 less than 50 yards from my residence in southwestern Leon County in the Trinity River bottoms. The pics are dated and timed and were taken 20 days apart at roughly the same time each morning. Of course, the state’s official position is that there are no big cats in East Texas, but these pictures have not been altered and seem to indicate otherwise. I forwarded them on to the state through our local TPWD wildlife biologist and their finding was “inconclusive.” Everyone else seems to think they are pictures of a big cat. Whatever, the pictures speak for themselves.

Additionally, on a sunny October day in 2007 at 11 a.m. a cougar crossed the road ahead of me less than 20 yards away. It was tawny in coloration, weighed about 90-100 lbs., and its tail was virtually as long as its body. No picture to show for that exciting encounter, only a great memory which is anything but “inconclusive.”

Roger E. Rinkenberger, President

Boggy Creek Wildlife

Management Assoc.

EDITOR: Thanks so much for the photos. The cat in the photo looks like a large bobcat with a motion blur as many game cameras produce at night. However it is hard to tell. Still a great shot. Bobcats are nothing to sneeze at.

Several years ago my brother Bill and I went blue quail hunting on the Black Gap Wildlife Management area. We had to check in at the headquarters. While there, we heard a great commotion of hounds baying. I asked the ranger why they had them. He said they were used to track bears and cougars to either move them or put a collar on them. We left there and drove a few miles toward the Rio Grande River to make camp.

It was a beautiful moonlight night. Rather than sleeping in the back of the pickup we threw a tarp on the ground and put our sleeping bags on the tarp. Sometime during the night, I felt something at my head. I felt with my hand, and it was a furry feel. I then opened my eyes, and I was staring face to face with a huge cougar. It scared me so bad that I woke up.

Papa Taylor

EDITOR: Those are some interesting cat encounters for sure. Not sure if Mr. Taylor’s was a bad dream or a scary encounter but either way it would be super creepy in the Trans Pecos night.

TF&G’s New Fan

After spending an enjoyable weekend at Lake Sam Rayburn with Owen Belk, my best friend of over 50 years, I came home to my hometown of Silsbee, Texas. I swung by the post office to pick up the bills and someone had left a copy of Texas Fish and Game on the table. I considered that good luck and brought it home. After reading Ted Nugent’s article as well as Kendal Hemphill’s and Chester Moore’s, I am now a new subscriber. I have read the issue from cover to cover, and there are many other articles that I love, but those cinched the deal. Thanks!

Arthur Ford

P.S. If Ted ever needs a bass player let me know

EDITOR: Thanks so much for your kind words. I am glad you enjoyed the issue and our magazine. I’m a bass player too, so if Ted needs a bassist you might have to get behind me in line. I’ve hinted about that position a few times myself.