Shadow Cat: Encountering the American Mountain Lion

by Susan Ewing (Editor), Elizabeth Grossman (Editor)

Twenty essays by such voices as Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Pam Houston, and Rick Bass, explore the natural history, encounters with humans, and controversial future of the mountain lion

Genres: Natural History

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

My two greatest joys as a kid were riding my bike and reading books. Both offered escape and adventure—my bike took me flying out into the physical world, while books were the bridge to an inner world of emotion and ideas. I came to writing as way to hold the physical world like a bird in my hands, so I could see more clearly, feel more deeply, and understand more completely. And because in those moments when writing works, it’s magic.

I was born and raised in Kentucky, but wandered west soon after graduating high school. I lived in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for many years, rotating through a variety of jobs, like working as a bull cook in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, commercial salmon fishing in Southeast Alaska, staking mining claims for a geophysical company in the Brooks Range, working in a print shop, and waitressing. Then I got a job as an wildlife information officer, and started writing as part of the job. Something clicked. I loved it. Soon after that I wrote my first book, Going Wild in Washington and Oregon. I was the kid on the bike—thrilled and committed to the ride.

Somewhere in all that I finished my much-interrupted education and graduated with a BA from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. In 1991, I moved to the Gallatin Valley of Montana, which felt like home as soon as I saw the Bridger Mountains on the horizon. My life is at its sweetest equilibrium when I’m out hiking in those mountains with my husband and my dog.

Reviews

[Lisa Jo Frech · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'll never get to really know one of these elusive creatures through this book, because encounters with a mountain lion tend to be super brief. But taken together, these encounters are a step toward some understanding of the behavior and habits of this truly wild and spectacular animal.