Years ago, one cold and foggy morning in January, someone posted on Next Door that there were 2 cougars sighted in the neighborhood. The alarm bells went off and text chains began amongst parents, an email was sent out by the school, and the thread on Next Door exploded. Everyone was in a panic mode and I was reading all the comments. Well, a few minutes into it I noticed that my giant Golden Retriever had gotten out of the back yard. I called my buddy across the street who has a yellow lab and sure enough she was out as well. This wasn’t unusual and they’d both get out of the yard or house and wander the neighborhood together. We located them pretty quickly and got them back home and there were no other reports of cougar sightings that morning. I’m pretty sure whoever reported it saw 2 of the friendliest, least threatening (albeit large) dogs in the early fog and jumped to a huge conclusion.

No school children were eaten in the “ordeal.”