I can’t say I’m surprised that last week’s cougar column drew some feedback from local eyewitnesses. In fact, truth be known, I was hoping to stir the pot. Seems like a great cabin-fever topic.

The controversial subject of New England mountain lions has lain dormant in this space for some time despite knowledge of many reported sightings either in the press or by word of mouth over the past decade. I have not turned a deaf ear to such reports, just stopped commenting on them, not wanting to “beat a dead horse.” But like I said last week, when the big cats start showing up in your back yard, it’s time to pay attention.

By mid-morning of the day last week’s column hit the street there were two e-mails waiting in my Inbox, one from equine enthusiast Laurie Neely of Orange, the other from longtime Sunderland native and current Montague resident Karle Kushi. The next day another response came by way of the telephone. It was old friend and semi-neighbor Joe Judd, who unbeknownst to him had been mentioned anonymously in the column he wanted to discuss. Two of the three respondents reported seeing a big cat; the third had seen and photographed a track that had been brought to his attention by the landowner. Interestingly, two of the three witnesses had been rebuffed by authorities when reporting their sighting. The officials understandably do not want to spawn public hysteria.

Kushi reported seeing a big cat and later tracks left by one in north Sunderland 30 or more years ago. “They’ve been around the area for a long time,” he wrote. “My wife had one jump across the road in front of her car about five years ago on her way to work at UMass. It happened on Turners Falls Road, just before Randall Road, where the power lines cross, coming from the Montague landfill.”

Neely’s observation, coincidentally also on her way to work at UMass, occurred last fall in the Wendell State Forest. The big cat crossed Farley Road in front of her vehicle. “There is no doubt about it,” she wrote. “I had a clear view, maybe 50 yards away. … I was driving toward Millers Falls from Wendell. It was crossing north to south, into the woods from the side of the road that borders the Millers River. Dog-sized, light brownish in color, it had a very long tail that curled up toward the end.”

Believing she had made an important observation, Neely reported the sighting by telephoning the United States Fish & Wildlife Service in Hadley and posting it on the Five-College Bulletin Board. Many responses from people who had seen big cats appeared quickly on the bulletin board, two of them reporting cougar-sightings in Leverett and Montague, “in the hills that are pretty-much contiguous with Wendell State Forest,” according to Neely.

“A number of people (from the bulletin board) contacted me to say they too had seen big cats, and that the F&W office had a policy of not responding or verifying cougar sightings??? Indeed, my message was never returned.”

Judd, who spends a great deal of time in the western Franklin County woods, has never seen a big cat himself, but he was alerted to the presence of one in his neighborhood, as I was, and went to the scene of a sighting, where he discovered a clearly discernible track and photographed it. Knowing many high-ranking MassWildlife officials personally, he disclosed his discovery, offered the photo to substantiate the presence of a big cat in Shelburne and was snubbed by an old friend.

“I was a little surprised by the response,” Judd said. “Apparently, they don’t want to publicize these things. I’ll come by with the photo Saturday afternoon after 3, so you can take a look.”

I looked it over and it looked like a cat track to me … a big one.