Up in Evanston, in the lightly wooded area running north-south along the canal, there’s something amiss. And whatever it is, it’s big and mean. The kids at Martin Luther King Jr. Laboratory School (which sits on the canal’s eastern border) have heard rumors. “It’s a cougar,” they say, or “My grandmother told me it was a man.” They don’t chase their footballs into the bushes anymore. A dog has been killed.
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A fugitive cougar was sighted not long ago in De Kalb. The Tribune ran a front-page story with a picture and a caption that read simply “A Cougar” (not to be confused with the cougar). But even a street-smart cougar isn’t likely to make a 70-mile trek through the strip malls and car dealerships of the western suburbs.
“It was ripped down the spine…blood was splattered everywhere, said Bill Andrews of Evanston Animal Control. “I don’t think it was a cult thing, they would have had to shoot the dog first.” The dog was not shot. Most likely, there was a fight between two beasts, and one of the beasts is still missing.
From the pictures, Letcher deduced a domestic canine did the nasty work. A wild animal would have eaten the intestines (the carcass was not consumed). A cat would have left slashing claw wounds (Lion died from “multiple severe bite wounds”). Finally, long light-colored hairs were found in Lion’s mouth suggesting a number of northern breeds. Put all the evidence together and the doctor’s best guess: a large malamute.
