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An acquaintance of mine probably wasn't surprised to hear about the cougar that wandered northern Wisconsin from January through May in 2010, disappeared, and then died June 11 after getting SUV'd on a Connecticut highway. Talk about missing your exit and ending up in the wrong town. My acquaintance can relate. Years ago, he became tired while driving on I-90/I-94, so his wife took the helm near Mauston. Before dozing off, he reminded her to take I-90 to La Crosse when the highways forked in 25 miles. No problem, she said. When he awoke, they were pulling off to gas...

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said today that results of genetic tests show that the mountain lion killed in Milford in June made its way to the state from the Black Hills region of South Dakota and is an animal whose movements were actually tracked and recorded as it made its way through Minnesota and Wisconsin. Genetic tests also show that it is likely that the mountain lion killed when it was hit by a car June 11 on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford was the same one that had been seen earlier that month in...

BOSTON (Reuters) – A mountain lion was killed just 70 miles from New York City early on Saturday morning, and officials were trying to determine if it was the same big cat spotted a week ago roaming the posh suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut. The 140-pound mountain lion was hit by a small SUV on a highway in Milford, Connecticut, early Saturday morning, and died from its injuries. The driver was unhurt, officials said. With no native mountain lion population in the state, "it's possible and even likely" it is the same enormous cat with a long tail spotted last weekend...

Conservation Experts: This Size Cat Hasn't Been Seen Here In 100 Years. There has been a wild animal alert issued in the northern suburbs. A mountain lion, yes, a mountain lion, is on the loose. ... We’re not looking for your Aunt Mildred’s kitty here, either. This is a big cat, a 160-pound predator that hunts and eats things. ... Ironically the Eastern mountain lion was officially declared extinct only a few months ago — in March.

UPDATE 9:20 a.m. - Charlene Wilkinson just wanted to read the news, not be the news when she picked up the Independent Record off her porch Wednesday morning. Then she got a call from the Helena Police dispatcher shortly after 7 a.m., telling her to stay inside and move away from the windows because a mountain lion was curled up on her front porch, precisely where she had picked up her newspaper just moments earlier. "They told me not to even look out the window because I could startle it and it could go through the window," Wilkinson said, recalling...

EAST LYME, Conn -- East Lyme Middle School is without its band and music teacher. Police said they charged 25-year-old Amy Schneider on Friday with three counts of second-degree sexual assault.

SPOKANE, Wash. - A Wenatchee hunter has a right to be proud for his photo showing a pride of mountain lions on the Douglas County ranch where he has permission to hunt. The black and white trail-cam image, which shows eight cougars in one spot, has gone viral in Northwest websites and e-mail lists since he first released it to acquaintances on Christmas Day. PHOTO • Wildlife enthusiasts were in awe of the scene, which few people will see in their lifetimes. • Alarmists were ready to take up arms against the lion onslaught on the Central Washington deer population....

It's impossible to mistake the big cat in the grainy black and white pictures — not with that distinct patch of white hair at its mouth, the muscled jaw line, bulging shoulders and sleek profile. Call it a cougar, puma or panther. The question is: What's it doing in Chesterfield? The Missouri Department of Conservation isn't quite sure, but most likely the mountain lion was just passing through in search of territory or a mate. The pictures taken Jan. 12 from a stationary wildlife camera mark the first confirmed sighting in St. Louis County since 1994, and the 13th in...

A Plant City High School teacher has resigned after acknowledging she bought a "morning after pill" for a student and had inappropriate Facebook conversations with the student's boyfriend. Ginger Parks, a 17-year teaching veteran, resigned her job Sept. 22, less than a week after she was confronted with the allegations. She faced firing if she didn't quit, Hillsborough County School District records show. Parks, who taught English, also was the school's cheerleading coach. She at first denied any misconduct, the district reported, but changed her story when district investigator Andrew J. Rouleau told Parks he had 40 pages of printouts...

Small dog vs. big cat: US farmer shoots mountain lion after terrier trees animal By The Associated Press (CP) COLMAN, S.D. — A 150-pound (68-kilogram) mountain lion was no match for a squirrel-chasing terrier. Jack the Jack Russell weighs only 17 pounds (8 kilograms), and yet he managed to trap the cougar up a tree on Tuesday on a farm in the north-central state of South Dakota. Jack's owner, Chad Strenge, told The Argus Leader that the dog "trees cats all the time," and that the plucky terrier probably "figured it was just a cat." Professor Jonathan Jenks, who tracks...

She's best known for that scene in Basic Instinct - and it appears that Sharon Stone still lives by the maxim if you've got it, flaunt it, on the set of a recent movie. The star stripped down to a tiny bikini in low-budget comedy Five Bucks A Day, directed by Calendar Girls and Made In Dagenham British film maker Nigel Cole. In fact, the budget seems to have been so low that the props department couldn't afford to loan Sharon a handbag.

On August 19, 1996, 36-year-old Cindy Parolin and three of her children were riding horses in the Similkameen backcountry, 30 miles northwest of Princeton, British Columbia. Like their mother, 6-year-old Steven, 11-year-old Melissa and 13-year-old David felt a mixture of wonder and excitement as they traveled through the vast wilderness. The four were headed to a cabin to join Parolin's husband and other son for a camping vacation. As the family rode along, the horses grew increasingly nervous. The cause became starkly clear when a cougar suddenly launched itself from the undergrowth at Steven. The animal missed its mark, landing...

JUNEAU COUNTY, Wis. (WTAQ) - The state DNR says it could not confirm that a den of young cougars has settled in west central Wisconsin. That’s after a mountain lion seriously injured a horse on Monday in the Wonewoc area of Juneau County. Officials said it was apparently the same cougar that killed 2 sheep and a cow in the Wonewoc area last month. The DNR’s Keith Warnke said volunteers and officials from his agency and the USDA all tried track the animal on Monday, but rainfall made the task impossible. After the May attack, Warnke said crews were hoping...

Salazar's 5-year-old son was attacked and severely mauled by a cougar that tried to drag the boy off a well-used hiking trail and into the woods in the Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque. The story was so frightening that it made national news. "People would say that it was just an accident. That it was extremely rare, just a rare accident." ...Convinced that three attacks in three months didn't qualify as rare... In 2006 and 2007, there were nine reported ... In 2008, there were 40 reported encounters before the attack on her son in May. This led her into...

A 42-year-old woman accusing of having sex with a 14-year-old boy in Bath and then bragging about it at work gave up her right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday and her case will head to Northampton County Court. The boasting by Theresa E. Kasznicki not only led to her getting fired from her job at an insurance company, but to a police investigation that landed her in Northampton County Prison, according to court records. Her attorney Tuesday waived the hearing before District Judge John Capobianco under the condition that a plea agreement is in place in court.

My friend Sarah looked me in the eye with an intensity I have rarely seen in the many years I have known her. Then she confessed: 'I have a secret. I am in love with a 17-year-old vampire called Edward Cullen. I think about him . . . dream about him. I have his photo on my desk, and his picture is my computer screensaver.' Worryingly, not only did I immediately know who she was talking about, but I heard myself declaring (several octaves higher than my normal speaking voice): 'I know! How amazing was it when he growled at...

Cougars beware — having a boy toy husband increases a woman’s chances of an early death, according to a German study reported Thursday by the Daily Mail. And the younger her spouse is, the harder it is on a woman's health, researchers found. However, the trend is reversed when an older man opts for a younger woman. The more youthful his wife, the longer the husband is expected to live.

Brooks Perlin is 37 years old and has been dating Katie for three years. Katie is 52.

It started with a casual lunch. Roger Briggs was in mourning, widowed after 63 years of marriage. Helen Smith, who is legally blind, needed someone to help escort her from her home, a houseboat docked at the Beaufort Marina, to her favorite bar, Hemmingway's Bistro in downtown Beaufort. Staff at the local hangout thought the two just might be a good fit, so they arranged for a lunch date. The rest just fell into place, said Smith, age 91. Briggs, 90, popped the question last month and family and friends from the Bistro prepared for a Valentine's Day wedding. "It...

Well, she's telling you. Her timing is, well, curious. In the last week, CBS News laid off at least 90 people. Today, video taken during her Harper's Bazaar cover shoot surfaces. In it, the $15 million-a-year "CBS Evening News" anchor is dolled up, posing with her best "glamourpuss" face, and answering questions about genetics ("I've been very fortunate, all the girls in my family have pretty good legs, I guess," she says) and when she feels sexiest ("I always feel sexiest when I'm in a little black dress with a really great pair of shoes. High heels of course.") It's...