Colorado Mountain Lion Sightings Increasing, but Are There Really More Big Cats Around?

“Three dogs were attacked by mountain lions!” my mother reported at the end of January. My parents moved to Grand Lake this past summer after my mom got a job at the high school in Granby. They had previously lived in Lyons — a small town in the foothills just north of Boulder — so nearby wildlife activity was not a new experience for them.

However, the volume and proximity of the lion attacks, as well as the wide variety of wildlife they’d already seen in their new backyard, had my mother gravely concerned for our two family dogs, Tato and Nella.

Her report was not just conversational; it was a warning. I had agreed to house-sit for my parents the weekend of February 18, and while there, I was instructed by Mom to stand outside with a flashlight each night when I let the…