June 29, 2008 - by Dixie A. Walter: There has been a cougar sighting in the vicinity of 380th and Meridian.  A person who saw the big cat reported it was a young animal. The area where the cat was seen is about a quarter of a mile from Northwest Trek. A cougar was seen May 18 going through a parking lot at Trek.
     The area where the cat was most recently spotted is rural, yet also residential.  Saturday, May 10 one of the native big cats killed a pet alpaca owned by local resident  Christine Fitzer. Eight days later a cougar was seen at Northwest Trek.
     And a couple of weeks after the alpaca, Aiden, was killed, near the town limits of Eatonville, a pet pig was killed on Scott-Turner Road. The pig was a pet of the Schmidt family and they had only had the pot-bellied pig a couple of months.
     Schmidt's have 22 acres on Scott-Turner Road and have never had an occurrence like the death of the pig happen before. It is not known for sure what did kill the pig, but there is no doubt the alpaca was killed by a cougar. Christine Fitzer saw the cougar and chased it off, but it was too late. This attack took place during daylight hours.
      Sgt. T. Jackson with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife brought hounds to the Fitzer area, above Dow Ridge, and the hounds hit on a place where the big cat had bedded down. That was the end of the cougar around Dow Ridge, at least for the time being. (Or, maybe not. Just because we don't see the animal doesn't mean it's not around.)
      When the body of the little pig was discovered Sgt. Jackson was notified. He asked the family to leave the dead pig out to see if the attacker would come back. It didn't. Tina also mentioned that one of her big dogs was very frightened by whatever took place and was found hiding under the front porch.
      Sgt. Jackson went to the area and ruled out a cougar attack when the "hounds did not pick up any cougar scent." Sgt. Jackson adds, "There are cougars in the areas surrounding Eatonville and people should always watch their children and pets, even if there was not a cougar in the area.
     Tina Schmidt called all of their neighbors just to alert them that something killed their little pig. Since dogs didn't pick up a cougar scent other theories about the pig's death were mulled over - Could it be a dog pack? No, dogs don't kill like that. Could it be a bobcat? One large bobcat was reportedly seen on Scott-Turner Road recently. A large bobcat may weigh 45 pounds and that could be stretching it. A regular sized pot-bellied pig weighs in the neighborhood of a 125 pounds, and that's conservative.