This is the footprint I discovered yesterday morning, when I went to get the newspaper, in our driveway:
Who left these pawprints?
This footprint might have been left one might earlier, that is Friday night, but definitely not earlier as otherwise we would certainly have driven over it and – at least partially – destroyed it. But this here is clearly superimposed over the tire marks.
Let’s first eliminate what it can’t have been:
- No dog, since on the one hand I really know Sally’s footprints by now, and on the other hand – should it have been a stray – the claw marks, characteristic of dogs, are missing.
- No raccoon either, as the prints are much too large [close to 3 inches wide] for that, and again, a raccon woul have left claw marks.
- And the same applies to our house cats.
But what could it have been?
The missing claw marks quite clearly make it something feline, and it must have been quite biggish. And that is where a mountain lion [aka cougar] comes to my mind, as we do have them in Texas – even if not frequently down here. But for me the print is not distinct enough to be sure. Compared to pictures [e.g. here] the imprint of one toe is missing and the rear imprint is by far not big enough – even if that could be attributed to the way the cat walked and/or to the softnes/hardness of the soil. Btw, I found two more, even if less distinguishable, of these pawprints in our garage!
Be it as it may, I surely believe we had a visit of a large feline. Luckily just a tramp!
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A German Expat's Life in Texas 
Hi Randall,
As these animals are rare here, too, yours- i.e. that it might have been an escaped former captive one – is a valid point.
Regards, Pit
Those things are coming back. Your link to the report out of Macon, Missouri puts one in the far north central part of our state, which is unusual, as most such creatures, i.e. bears and cougars live in the Ozarks where it’s easy to hide.
Yours could be a former captive animal that escaped as opposed to one of a natural breeding population.
Cheers.