Cat Attacks: True Stories and Hard Lessons from Cougar Country [Paperback]

Jo Deurbrouck (Author), Dean Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

As many mountain lion attacks have occurred in the past ten years as in the hundred preceding. What's happening? Cougar populations are rebounding, but these wild cats have fewer and fewer places to live. This is the first unflinching look at what happens when cougars and people cross paths. Impossible to put down, Cat Attacks chronicles mountain lion attacks and encounters that have occurred in the last ten years in the West. These riveting stories of heroes and victims will tell you what to fear, what to ignore, and what to expect when we make room for the cat that is arguably America's most effective largest predator.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Marginally protected for four decades, cougars have made a dramatic Comeback in the American West. From 1990 to 1999 Canada and the United States reported that 53 people had been either injured or killed by cougars. Before the rise in attacks, most people believed they could fight off a cougar or that attacks only occurred in rural areas. Yet, half of those who lost their lives were attacked in urban areas in the West.

Swiftly and silently cougars stalk and attack their prey. These cats typically feed on deer, but a recent study in the 1990s shows that cougars have begun hunting humans. Children have always attracted the attention of cougars and the cats have been known to attack even if an adult is close by. Judy Underdahl is one of many parents who recounted her child's attack. Underdahl was in her motor home photographing sleeping cougars when one caught sight her two-year old son and pushed its way into the motor home, attacking and killing the little boy.

The deadly attack on Barbara Schoener in 1994 in California is the first of many alarming tales of the hunter and the hunted. The book also features wildlife photographer Jim Mepham's close encounter with a cougar, along with Diane Shields's and Lucy Oberlin's first encounter with an aggressive cougar in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, as well as their second encounter a year later in the same location.

Cat Attacks provides provocative stories that will not only cause the hair on the back of your neck to rise, but will also increase you knowledge and awareness of this potential predator. --Jenny Burritt

About the Author

Jo Deurbrouck writes for Heartland USA and is the co-author of Insider's Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. She lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Dean Miller is a veteran political journalist who has written for U.S. News and World Report and the Christian Science Monitor. He is managing editor of the Post Register of Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sasquatch Books (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570612897
• ISBN-13: 978-1570612893
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WARNING! Mountain Lions Frequenting This Area --Be Alert--, March 1, 2004

By 

Stacey Cochran (Raleigh, NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cat Attacks: True Stories and Hard Lessons from Cougar Country (Paperback)

Cat Attacks was a really cool book. All of the stories collected in this volume are true stories of real people who were attacked or killed by mountain lions. It is written in an energetic style that really puts the reader into each of the scenes. There are graphs that describe the number and demographics of recent trends involving human-puma encounters. Probably of most interest though is that fact that the writers of this book do not approach mountain lions from a tree-hugger perspective, which is rare for book on mountain lions. It is an exciting read, and some of the chapter titles may give you an indication of the kind of mountain lion book this is (for example, "Profile of the Killer"; "A Father's Nightmare"; "Hunting the Truth"; "Into the Jaws of Death"; "Stalked"; and "Hard Truths" to name just a few).

Most of the stories are re-created as though you're there on the trail with these people as they're attacked: Barbara Schoener, for instance, when she was attacked and killed near the American River on the Western States Trail. Or there with Cindy Parolin when she wrestled with a cougar to save her six-year-old son. Or the Cuyamaca State Park stories near San Diego with ranger Laura Itogawa where mountain lions seem to be unusually aggressive and have attacked people a number of times.

This book dispels many of the popular myths, most of which ironically, have sprung up because of conservationist efforts in the past fifty years. Because I live in a remote area of Arizona and I often go for long-distance jogs alone, I can not tell you how helpful (and welcome) this book was. Most other cougar books I researched painted the mountain lion out to be a wonderful, beautiful animal and glossed over the very real facts (some times quite literally with beautiful photographs) that this animal has attacked nearly 60 people in the US and Canada since 1986.

Despite the fact that cougar numbers are at their all-time highest in 150 years, the general belief is that the animal is endangered. This book offers a very different perspective in the question as to who really is the endangered species.

Stacey Cochran
Author of CLAWS available for 80 cents

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great reading, January 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cat Attacks: True Stories and Hard Lessons from Cougar Country (Paperback)

fo ay one inerested in the subject this book is a great read. it picked up momentum until I couldn't put it down. The stories are thrilling although many ar very unnerving. It also provides varying perspectives on attacks and non-attacks. Good storytelling by the writers. I highly recommend it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UN-NERVING TRUTH!, December 14, 2004

By 

Janet M. Hammock (DACULA, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cat Attacks: True Stories and Hard Lessons from Cougar Country (Paperback)

FANTASTIC BOOK! ONCE OPENED YOU CAN NOT PUT IT DOWN! I WAS SO MOVED BY THE STORY OF THE LITTLE BOY THAT I E-MAILED THE AUTHOR TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOY. DEAN MILLER HAD THE WONDERFUL COURTESY TO E-MAIL ME BACK TO TELL ME THAT THE LITTLE BOY HAD MOVED AND HAD NUMEROUS OPERATIONS BUT WAS RECOVERING.
THIS IS ONE OF THOSE BOOKS THAT MAKES YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE RIGHT THERE WITH THE PEOPLE IN THE STORY.