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September 07, 2022 - 6:00 AM
A couple in Kamloops had a close encounter with two cougars this past weekend.
Samantha Penzie and her partner went camping Sunday night, Sept. 4, with their truck and camper 23 kilometres up Jamieson Creek Main Haul Road, a popular forest service road north of Kamloops.
“They went for a short campout because they both had the holiday Monday off,” said sister Jaime Shortts, who is sharing the story to warn others who use the area.
What was supposed to be a relaxing night out in the great outdoors turned out to be anything but.
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The pair set up camp at around 8:30 p.m. and less than an hour later, they heard a noise in the woods behind them.
“After passing cattle on the way up they thought it was a cow in the bushes,” Shortts said. “My sister was too curious to brush it off as cattle without knowing for sure so she grabbed a flashlight.
"She pointed the light behind where her partner was lounging in his camping chair and there was a massive, full grown cougar crouching maybe 25 feet away.”
Shortts said the pair got up and tried to scare the giant cat off but to no avail.
“As her man working to keep the cougar away my sister grabbed the spotlight from the truck and that's when she saw another cougar hiding underneath the truck.
"That’s when she knew she had to be more aggressive to scare the now two cougars away so she jumped into the truck knowing she had to essentially jump over a cougar, and laid on the horn.”
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The sound of the horn scattered the cougars allowing the couple to pack up their camping gear and get into the truck. They made it home safely that night, but Shortts said her sister was shaken up.
“She told me her heart hadn’t stopped racing,” she said. “They'd been charged by a bear before and she wanted to run away but her partner scared it away by being big and yelling so it fled."
Shortts is sharing the story to help others stay safe as the area is often used by outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
“Always be prepared because cougars are so incredibly stealthy,” she said. “It's giving me goosebumps thinking about what could have happened. Don’t ever feel bad for being curious about that mysterious noise in the bush.”
— This story was updated at 9:28 a.m. on Sept. 9, 2022, to correct the spelling of last name of the subject of the story.
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