Are there really cougars in Richland county Ill .Fri Feb 22 was a day i will wonder for the rest of my life what really Happened .In 30 plus years of my Day time coyote hunting carrier I have never experienced Anything like it . A normal Friday of Hunting with one in the top 4 dogs that i have ever owned in my life was killed .Henry an 8 year old 44 lbs soaking wet track running coyote dog whom in the last 2 years cant run up with his offspring anymore like a lot of older dogs I Have had He will pull out of a race and find his own coyote . Who was to no this was anything Different than the normal Routine for Henry . Just to Clarifies Henry was not Supper man or Hercules but he was a dog with a lot of Heart and a lot of go with above average grit, and no matter how many days in a row or how many hours you put on him, When the truck backed up to the kennel he would be standing at the gate willing to be loaded . On this day with my dog box empty with hounds scattered Henry got behind in a coyote race and pulled in to a Brushey thicket to find his own pace coyote race ,while listening to the dogs a mile north i was checking Henry location often on the GPS for the fer of a Heavy traveled blacktop on its West side,as he moved closer in that direction i decided to move closer to him to insure his safety of the road ,When i pulled up and shut the truck off i could here Henry Barking on the creek about 250 yd., While Looking at the GPS i noticed he was making a lot of tight circles and giving a lot of mouth in a way i thought to be odd to happen that quickly ,as 2 cars passed me i noticed on the GPS he was moving East in a rather fast pace .While checking the other dogs on the GPS further north i decided with him moving away from the road i needed to get north because the dogs up there where headed for route 50 highway .with the thought in my head as i headed north i thought hes probably found a coyote that doesn't want to run . At that moment his GPS popped up treed , while catching the dogs up north i told my hunting buddy Craig that Henry was treed and to go ahead down there and dump his hounds in to Henry he could probably use some help . while i stayed up there to catch 1 last dog .When Craig got there Henry was treed 200 yds off the north road ,When Craig got there he immediately came on the radio and said he could here a fight taking place ,he dumped his dogs and as soon as they got to the fight they Immediately went back to running and just quit about 100 yds or so south and never made another bark .With Henry still showing treed we immediately walked in and found Henry . In my 30 plus yrs of coyote hunting I have seen my share of torn up dogs and his have all been at the top end of the scale but I was not prepared for what i found ,Needless to say he passed a short time after that. .With the help of neighbors and fellow hunting partners a coyote and or dogs doing this was ruled out, By looking at the tracks we all came to the same conclusion ,that it was some sort of big cat. my belief now is when the other dogs got to the fight the cat took off and went up a tree . with a quick trip home to reload the dog box and neighbors bringing in more dogs we cast back in this area from different directions hoping to find out what it was with no success. I no we have a good supply of Bobcats in our area. Was it a Bobcat or a Cougar.

I am sure there is some down there. I have personally seen one in Northeastern North Carolina and several other hunters did too. Game Wardens agreed they are in the area too. Sorry about your dog.

Thanks