This happened two weeks ago. Me and my sister spotted a strange animal near the Cattauragus Indian Reservation while driving back home from Dunkirk, NY on March 15th 2008. It was dark, about 9:00pm. We were traveling east on the New York State Thruway going back home to Akron, NY. We were just on the bounds of the Reservation, driving through a wooded area. There were no houses around. The divider consisted of trees, and there were trees on both sides of the road. We were going about 70mph.
My sister saw it first. She said, "Watch out for that deer!" and pointed. It sort of poked out of the trees in the divider on the left (driver's side) and ran across the road in front of the car to the right. It was about 10 yards ahead of the car when it crossed.
While my sister thought it was a deer at first, it clearly was *not* a deer as it crossed the road and the lights shone on it. It moved extremely fast--remember our speed and the distance it was from the car.
This would be my description considering the factors: It was about four feet high at the back; it tapered to about 2 1/2 feet towards the front, which gave it almost a hunched look. On further reflection I thought it could have been like that because of the way it was running. You know, like how a cat can be higher at the back when running? I'd say it was between 4 and 5 feet long. It had paws. I seem to recall a cat-like head/face/snout area, but I can't be sure. My sister said she thought it was like a dark brown, but to me it seemed more like it was a light gray color.
Considering everything, I kind of think that what we saw was a cougar or mountain lion, but do those live in this part of New York?
That concludes my first-hand description, but there's a further addition to the story that's third-hand, unfortunately--feel free to delete it.
My sister goes to school at Syracuse, NY. Apparently she was telling this story to my son, who also attends there. A roommate of his was listening in, and he had this to say.
His family has been seeing a strange animal around their house lately. It matches in respects to the thing we saw cross the road. Eerily, he said that it's been leaving tracks, and that the tracks are coming up to the house, and coming right up to windows. Even though it has "paws", he said that they feel that it might walk upright (two legged); it could be that it's standing upright to lean on the window to look in, giving the impression of uprightness. They've gotten people to come look at the tracks to try to identify them, but they've come up with nothing.
I guess when my sister was telling about our encounter it sort of upset this young guy, because a lot of it matched with what has been happening around his family's house.
If anyone could shed light on this--or have also seen something strange either in the area or that matches the description--it would be a great help. We're not freaked out about it or anything, just curious to know. *Was* it a mountain lion? |
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