Cougar Attacks Children

Talk about coincidence!

I’d just decided on next week’s Chronicle when I read this morning’s Times Colonist. A headline on page 5 confirmed my choice of subject: “Woman airlifted to hospital with serious injuries from cougar attack.”

This latest cougar confrontation occurred west of Agassiz in the Fraser Valley, about 110 km east of Vancouver.

I can only hope that the unnamed victim recovers from her injuries—as did the protagonists of my tale, which occurred in 1916.

Now I have told the story of Doreen Ashburnham, 11, and Tony Farrer, 8, before—in pieces because of the realities of having my column published in the Cowichan Valley Citizen. Finally, with www.CowichanChronicles.com, I have a chance to stitch them together with an entirely new, intriguing and unknown angle from Victoria. Plus several wonderful photos of Doreen and Tony, the cougar and Doreen’s lifesaving medal which is on exhibit in the British Imperial War Museum (a story in itself).

As is the case of most stories, this one is layered; the attack on the children is the opening act but it’s the “sequel” that most intrigues me.

I’m sure that even those of you who read my columns in the Citizen will only remember highlights of the cougar attack that made international headlines, 105 years ago.

It’s a story well worth retelling and, with some refinements and the great photos, I’ll do just that in next week’s Chronicles.

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