They called them “The Night Eyed” and they were a little less friendly than your average mountain folk. Most of the time you could catch them up above the treeline, clamoring on the scree on all fours like the cats people thought they were. But they weren’t cats at all. Not even close.

Being stationed at the Polebridge Ranger Station most of the week, I kept a sharp eye out for them, even from my house up near Demers Ridge. You could see them every full moon out screaming and hollering – having a good old time. But you had to get used to the sounds. The first time people heard ‘em, they thought someone was getting murdered.

It was April 20th, 2019 when everything went down. I had to write the very same report up for the State Police, so you’re getting the retelling of the story… Except… I don’t think anyone’s going to believe me… In the official report I had to be pretty vague about some details. Hopefully in this version, I can get some things cleared up that I didn’t really want to include in the “official story.”

Anyway, if I know the state police at all, they’re just going to write my story off as “night terrors” or something, even though I haven’t had that since I was six years old. Whatever. I’m not scared of anything. All that got beat out of me in the Marine Corp. You could send me up after those crazy people with a machete and I’d be alright. But no one is going to do that, because they don’t even think they exist. I’ve got their “official press release” about the night eyed.

They ignore the issue altogether. They called them Pumas and were done with it. Well they weren’t Pumas, not even close. Pumas, Mountain Lions, Cougars, Catamounts – it’s all the same animal. America’s largest cat. Scary as all get out. The Puma were all over these parts. As an employee of the DNR, it’s part of my job description to make sure each adult Puma is accounted for. We use drones to investigate new litters, and whenever we have a newborn death, we tally it. We even have names for ‘em. It’s a lot of work, especially when we have to go tag-and-release, when the populations are low.

Now east, up in the Lewis Range, the Glacial National Park DNR has everything reckoned out. So many tourists come up there the state has them on point. But west of the Livingston Ridge, down in our valley, things are a different matter. Our action comes from the west. The Flathead County Sheriff’s department and the Forestry Service both get up here from time to time, mostly to handle drunken loggers, or find lost tourists, or poachers… But it’s me up here all the time. They think they know what goes on, but they might as well be tourists themselves.

Down the middle of the valley runs North Fork Flathead River. It runs from Flathead Canada into Flathead National Forest, then dumps into Flathead Lake. All this sits on the Northside of the Indian Reservation. Guess which tribe it is? Yes, genius, the Flatheads.