A Friday night soak in an outdoor hot tub sent chills through the spines of a father and daughter as they spotted a cougar peering at them through the bush about a foot away.
Natalee Dennis was visiting her parents at their Tofino home on Friday, January 10th. It was about eight or 9 p.m. when Natalee joined her father Stephen in the hot tub.
“Dad had already been in there for awhile,” she said.
But when Natalee got in the water with her dad, they noticed their pet cat was acting strange.
“My dad was sitting in the corner seat (closest to the bushes) and our cat sat on the side of the hot tub, which it never does,” she recalled.
The cat, she said, kept pushing Stephen’s head.
“It was so weird,” said Natalee.
When her father splashed himself, they heard rocks behind him move.
“It freaked dad out because a cougar once took his dog up a tree and killed it,” Dennis shared. “But he said it must be a racoon.”
The father and daughter struggled to get the flashlights going on their phones, and Natalee managed to turn on her video and shone the flashlight into the bushes, just inches from the edge of the hot tub they were in.
“We were leaning over the edge of the hot tub, flashing the phone light, looking for the racoon,” she recalled.
In the video you can hear father and daughter teasing each other about a cougar being nearby.
Then you hear Natalee yell, “Oh, it is a cougar, dad!” and the camera pans over to the face of a mountain lion just a few feet away, it’s eyes glowing bright. They backed away from the edge of the hot tub before the video cuts off.
“It was BIG!” said Natalee. “A full-blown adult, about 200 pounds of cougar just sitting there looking at us.”
Stephen didn’t believe Natalee at first, but when he saw the cougar, he pushes away from the edge of the hot tub, saying, “Holy sh*t! Yes indeed!”
“We just backed out of the hot tub, nice and calm,” Natalee laughed. “The last of the video just shows us running backwards into the house about 15 feet away, and lots of swearing.”
Father and daughter did exactly what is recommended when one encounters a cougar – stay calm, back away slowly, never turning your back on the animal.
For Stephen, this is not his first experience with the wild cats. He grew up on the beaches near Catface Mountain in Ahousaht territory, locally known as ‘Hippy Point’. Stephen’s family lived in the wilderness in a neighborhood of simple cabins, accessible only by boat.
Now in his 60s, Stephen was only 11 years old when he watched a cougar take his dog near their home at Catface.
“Yes, it was a cougar that ate my dog in front of me when I was 11; there was another one that tried to kill another dog shortly thereafter,” he shared, adding that they were pretty traumatic experiences. “But you do take away from those experiences that cougars are at the top of the food chain and we’re well underneath it.”
Years later, long after Stephen moved away from Catface, a tragedy struck the family. It was May 16, 1988 when a cougar took another life at Catface, this time, it was Stephen’s nine-year-old stepbrother.
“I think he was running along a log, and they think possibly just surprised the cougar,” Stephen shared.
Jesse Sky Bergman was visiting family at the Catface community when he was stalked and killed by a four-year-old male cougar. According to Dennis, he recalls that the cougar was hunted down and shot three days later.
The tragedies raised awareness for the Dennis family about how to stay safe in cougar country. Once father and daughter were safely inside their home, Natalee said she yelled to her mother, Cindy, that there was a cougar by the hot tub.
“We watched it for about 20 minutes,” said Natalee.
It just sat still, watching back before it finally disappeared deeper into bushes. It appeared there were two cougars, maybe a mother with her nearly full-grown cub, Natalee speculates.
The cougars have been spotted in several locations around other residences and at Wickaninnish Elementary School field since the weekend. Tla-o-qui-aht has also issued warnings after cougars were spotted near their Esowista and Ty-histanis communities on Long Beach.
Wildsafe BC offers this advice for keeping safe in cougar country:
Reducing Conflict:
Keep pets indoors, especially at night.
Keep dogs on leash.
Secure chickens using an electric fence.
Cougar Encounters:
Stop, stay calm, do not turn your back and do not run. Avoid bending down.
Pick up small children and pets. Look as large as possible.
Maintain eye contact. Speak firmly. Prepare bear spray.
Back away slowly and seek shelter.
In the rare event of an attack, fight back and aim for the eyes and face. Discharge bear spray if you have it. Never play dead.
Please report sightings to the 24/7 RAPP line at 1 (877) 952-7277.
Natalee says since the encounter with the cougar, her family now only uses the hot tub during daylight hours. She says her grandfather passed away last September, and his brother assured her that this was a message or visit from her grandparents.
“They are together and are okay,” said Natalee.
