Maggie's Farm

Hiking and survival techniques as well as the Forestry Service advise using aggressive methods when confronted with a puma or black bear.
That advice comes with some NASA approved underwear.

My wife and I have hiked in griz country in Montana covering in our hikes usually 20 miles. Total we've covered about 1500-2000 miles over the last 10 years. We've had two bear encounters, one griz and one blackbear.
Since I was wearing the darker hiking shorts I took the lead and confronted the blackbear by raising my arms over my head and growling and stomping my feet....the bear beat retreat. I should add that my wife, a good shot. had me covered with a .357 magnum and I had holstered a .44 magnum. We didn't want to kill the bear unless we really had to.
The griz was another story. Just good luck. It was feeding on huckleberries and we say it first, although I'm sure it smelled us way earlier. We cut a swift retreat as it looked up once from it's feeding and showed no sign of leaving those yummy huckleberries. I had reoved the .44 from it's holster on that occasion.
Never had an encounter with a cat but my guess is that those people had pets that were fed on the porch, an easy draw for puma. It more that likely would have run away if the door was banged on or loud noises made ..it obviously left.
As we move futher inot cat and bear country it is imperative to not ever leave food outside, even in garbage cans. Bears can smell for many miles, many miles. Cats aren't bad snifffers either.
The Indians (which Indians Habu,like they're not all the same..ok,ok.the ah, ah Souix and the Nez Perce, whew) hav a saying . The eagle will see it first, the wolf will hear it first, and the bear went over the mountain...no,no..the bear will smell it first.