The Mountain Lion...

I have to post about this innocent turned crazy story to look back on some day. It starts back on that fun day Lars and I spent fishing on the Smith's Fork river up by Cokeville Wyoming.

 I don't think I mentioned it in my previous post about that day, but while we were up there fishing I saw this old shack a little ways off of the bank and thought it would be fun to go take some pictures by it. I love old stuff like that and we all know my love of taking pictures. So we took a break from fishing and walked up to check it out. We wandered around it and looked in the old windows and when I looked in one, I saw this!

So I called Lars over to show him and he was also impressed to see a dead mountain lion laying in there. I snapped a couple pictures, we talked about how it was cool to see something like that and how it was pretty rare. Then we took these pictures...

...then went back to fishing.

It was such a fun day!

So then when I got home, I posted a bunch of the fish pictures on facebook and a few days later remembered the mt. lion pictures and posted one with a picture of the old shack on facebook.

As soon as I posted it, people started to comment about how cool it was to see something like that and a couple asked where we were fishing that day. So I replied with where we were, not thinking anything of it.

Well when I showed Lars the post he said that I probably should take it off and that we also probably needed to report finding it to the fish and game department in Wyoming.

So I did, and he called it in.

Well a few days later, the ranger he talked to called him back saying that he'd gone up and found the shack, but then the first words out of his mouth after that were "I just have to ask you...how in the world did you know it was a mountain lion?" So Lars told him that he saw the face and the teeth and the legs etc...So the guy, obviously confused asked him a couple more times and then they went on to talk about it for at least another 20 minutes before Lars realized that maybe we'd seen 2 different things. So I was on the computer (at his parents house in Price) and had this picture pulled up on the computer...

 ...so he told the guy that I would email it to him. So I did. Well when he received it, I don't think he could believe it, because by the time he got up to the shack...(like I said within days of when we were there) low and behold...this is what he found...

Yep! Mountain lion was GONE!
No wonder he kept questioning how we knew it was a mountain lion!

Seemed pretty fishy to us that this mountain lion that had obviously been there for at least a few months or maybe much more was gone within a few days of me posting it on facebook!

So at that point, Lars ended up telling the guy that I'd posted about it on facebook and he pretty much said that they are starting an investigation and that I needed to put something else on there letting everyone know about this investigation and that if anyone has any information that they need to report to the Wyoming fish and game asap. Oh my goodness how one innocent thing leads to another. Never did I think twice about posting that picture...I just thought it was something cool to see and show. Who knew that someone would take it and that people sell the skulls and teeth etc...of these animals!

Ugghhh.

So I guess we'll see where this goes. At this point I really can't see anyone coming forward and saying they took it!