Cats!

By Bill Kisliuk
From the Editor

This week, the Register published a note about the sighting of a mountain lion near Old Sonoma Road.

The item noted that representatives of the state Department of Fish & Game had not been contacted recently about a big cat in Carneros.

It appears that as several residents read the item, they smiled the smile of those who know something others don’t.

The big cats are among us. I know this because Michael Morris’ mom told me so. She also suggested I talk to Michael about it.

So I called Morris, a 62-year-old Napa resident who began life at Parks Victory Hospital on Jefferson Street. He has lived in a home near Napa Creek and Browns Valley Road for nearly 50 years, and says he has often heard the cries and seen evidence of the puma concolor, or mountain lion.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, mountain lions or cougars are common in California, ranging over large territories on terrain from the coastal mountains to the Sierra and preferring areas where they can find deer and small mammals.

Morris said his neighbors know there has been a mountain lion around “for a number of years.” It has been seen near the Moose Lodge, which has a thickly-forested hill behind it and Napa Creek in front of it, and the cat seems to “use the creek for a corridor.”

Morris said mountain lions make three distinct sounds. One is a sort of chirp, as he described it, by which the mother may communicate with a cub. Another he said he couldn’t describe, something of a choked-up, hiss-growl used to flush out prey.

Then he asked, had I ever heard a big cat scream? Thinking of wailing peacock cries I’ve heard in Carneros and reflecting back on old camping adventures, I said I wasn’t sure.

“If you’d heard one scream, you wouldn’t hesitate to answer,” said Morris. He went on to describe the sound as “like a woman being killed.”

You’re right, Mr. Morris. I’m sure I would remember it then.

Morris is aware of other cat sightings. An engineer for Domaine Chandon and Newton Vineyards, Morris said the big cats have been seen in the hills of Yountville near the sparkling wine cellar.

He is also a member of the North Bay Agricultural Alliance, which he described as a group of about 50 coastal ranchers and farmers trying to keep an eye on the doings of a regional regulator of San Francisco Bay and its environs, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

So he has heard about sheep being taken from herds in Sonoma side and knows that cats are often spotted in Napa County.

Cats in Carneros?

Of course.

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