Hi guys,

I had a very nice conversation with the guy in the Shasta suit when I was over at Hofheinz last Saturday for the basketball game against the Owls.

(Congrats on the win, btw... your team is solid and I always love playing against them)

So yeah, if any of you know who this guy is so that I might send him a facebook message, I would appreciate it! You can PM me, or of course, respond here.

Thanks!

THIS GUY

That is one stud cat!

It's Shasta # ?? .. as in how many of those kitties have we had as mascot over all the years?

I live in out here in ABQ nowadays, and I frequently take hikes up in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains with my dogs, Raven and Zoom, 75 and 90 lbs of fit prime dogflesh They are Lab-Xs and they love to run off-leash. In 22 years, I have been all over the West face of these mountains, both on foot and formerly, Mt Biking. Last year exactly to the day, we were doing some mileage, and climbed up the steep side of a boulder-covered hillside. As we topped it, we paused to look West out over the city for a few seconds. Suddenly, I saw my dogs running directly away from me to my right. As I looked down in the direction they ran, I saw my first ever cougar in the wild. It had flushed from hiding alongside a boulder 50-60' ahead, and bounded away down that hillside in about 5 magnificent leaps, bouldertop to bouldertop. As it lunged down a 10-15 foot drop onto the next boulder, its legs splayed out for landing, I observed that it had a shaggy fringe all along its flanks: it's winter coat already grown in, as we were in the 3rd week in November. My dogs continued pursuit down between boulders, and bushes, but fruitlessly. The animal hit the bottom of the hillside and disappeared to the left behind more large 10' boulders. Meanwhile, the dogs kept pursuing straight across the flat at the bottom of the hillside, not following the cougar anymore, but straight away from me. My eyes followed the line of flight they took across that open flat to the next hillside, and I then saw what they were chasing after: a mature male Mulie with a rack, was scrambling up the next hillside. It soon opened up a large gap from the two dogs who desperately chased it, baying and barking. Nevertheless, the deer soon reached the ridgeline and was gone. The dogs eventually, gave up and came back. I quickly rewound the 20-30 seconds of what had just occurred in my mindseye, marvelling at the power and grace of that cougar as he quickly descended and disappeared. It was likely, an adult male, probably about 160-180 lbs. I then realized how lucky the dogs were in not catching nor cornering it. It would have done major damage to either/both dogs had they had the misfortune in meeting it face-to-face. That cat was stalking the Mulie for supper and we came along and broke up the dinner party. Good thing, we werent the substitute.

The ture identity will never be known!!! He is a shawdow in the night!!!