It was 7:51am, and I had only been out of bed for a few minutes. I looked out the window at my back yard and saw something. It was tan with some white around it's muzzle, it's belly, and the bottom of it's tail. It was the size of a large dog, but it's tail was long and thin and held out behind it, curved like my house cats. It's shoulders were clearly feline, shifting with each step as it calmly walked. It's ears were smallish and it's head was round. It's snout was not thin... probably a third or half of the size of it's head. I couldn't see if it had whiskers as I was looking through a screen, but it was definitely a cat.

From what I've been able to gather, this cat was too large to be a bobcat and must have been a catamount - a mountain lion. But here? This is one of the more city-like parts of Vermont. I wouldn't expect such an animal to be up here.

Based on my limited research, it seems catamounts are thought to be extinct in Vermont. But there have been sightings, and they're not undocumented. In fact, some sightings were by zoologists.

It was definitely exciting to see. Wish I had my camera up there, but I wasn't going to give up watching the cat to go find it.