November 13th, 2019 – A video circulating social media Wednesday suggested a mountain lion was recently spotted near the Menards on Stonecreek Drive.

Using life-sized cutouts as confirmation, agents from the Missouri Department of Conservation said the animal seen in the video is not a cougar.

—KRCG 13

 

What about Twehous, their years of drilling + dynamite?

 

The acres knocked down for the new Sam’s Club?

 

+ the tracks found on Campbell’s farm, bigger than any housecat or coyote?

 

The calf dragged off pasture?

 

[Poor limbs pretzeled.]

 

What about the footage from Randy’s trail cam?

 

[That low slink + shudder of beige. Those great green eyes.]

 

What about 2008, the lion bulldozed near Fulton, curling fender with fur?

 

[Its terrifying majesty the first thing you see at the Runge Center.]

 

+ the flyers, all those dogs, tacked on Moser’s bulletin board?

 

Why do the men carry a pistol when entering the mines at Hwy 63 Quarry?

 

That morning something rode the wind other than fog?

 

The morning a woman caterwauled, wrapped birdsong inside-out.

 

What about the doe discovered up in a walnut tree, its carcass a chandelier?

 

+ the night the neighborhood dogs wouldn’t stop barking.