I can’t say whether the short introductory note topping an email sent my way this week was fueled by exuberance, defiance or relief. Does it really matter? So let’s just call enthusiastic cougar-researcher Ray Weber triumphant indeed, and leave it at that. OK? “Well,” he wrote in a delayed, victorious response to a five-month-old email […]

Hmmmm? Isn’t it interesting, maybe even humorous how topics with furry legs and big teeth linger? Yes, here I sit — still studying ritualistic landscapes and sacred burial grounds of our ancient indigenous tribes, with a current focus on sites called Wissatinnewag and Peskeomskut, where Northeastern Indians congregated in peace and harmony each spring to […]

Yep, another cougar tale. What can I say? They just keep coming at me. This latest report immediately piqued my interest for a few reasons: first, the southwestern New Hampshire location; second, an interesting photo; and third, I knew the man who wrote the front-page New Hampshire Sunday News story. I was first alerted to […]

It’s really starting to get wild here in cougar country. First, sightings, then related follow-ups and safety concerns; now shiny green eyes and a guttural grumble that’s difficult to describe, even from close quarters … real close, like, say, five or six feet, if you can believe it. Yes, folks, it looks like these cougar […]

Uh-oh, here we go again. Buckle your chinstraps. Fasten your seat belts. Looks like another flurry of cougar sightings — four legs, distinctive long tail — the latest one close to home. But, first, a little background. This most recent surge began quite inauspiciously more than a month ago, when an envelope on my Recorder […]

Canes and crutches, a forgotten hilltown bookshop and, yes, not surprisingly, more cougar rumors, one old, one new, the latter quite fascinating. In fact, I’d hesitate to report it if I didn’t trust the source. Fun. Another full plate, with lots of space and little local news to fill it. So, why not run with […]

Here I sit, dilapidated, duct-taped knee brace strapped to my chronic left knee, recuperating from a flare-up that required my first drainage and cortisone-shot remedy since injuring the joint on a bad 1976 landing while stealing second base at East Longmeadow’s Veterans Field. Cortisone had been suggested once in the past but I settled instead […]