SUDDEN VALLEY - A young cougar was trapped and moved out of Sudden Valley on Monday, Sept. 5.

It is believed to be the same one that came face to face with a 13-year-old girl on a trail last Monday, then was spotted later that day in her family's backyard.

"I'm quite confident it's the same cat," said Dave Jones, a state Fish and Wildlife game warden in Whatcom County.

The cougar is a female sub-adult that weighs about 75 pounds and is 11/2 years old.

She was tranquilized and then moved to remote eastern Whatcom County. A tag was put in her ear to help identify her.

"We're on our way up into the woods to let it go," Jones said Monday, Sept. 5.

The cougar was found in the cage-trap that Jones set Tuesday, Aug. 30, on the trail near the house at 8 Sunflower Circle, where resident Sara Werner Clark saw it grooming itself and sunning in her backyard the day before the trap was set.

Her daughter, Victoria, had a close encounter with the cougar on Monday, Aug. 29, while on the trail that goes behind their house down to Morning Beach, which also is known as AM Beach.

Victoria was looking down at her feet as she was running on the trail. She looked up in time to see the cougar just a couple of feet away.

"They were face to face," Werner Clark said. "The cougar just veered off and ran off the trail into the brush."

That trail goes into an area in the woods where area children play, according to Werner Clark.

Later that day, around 1 p.m., the family saw the cougar in their Sunflower Circle backyard, which isn't fenced and opens into a wooded gully.

A deer that the cougar had killed was nearby. Its carcass was moved to the trail about 40 feet from the house and used to trap the cougar, according to Werner Clark.

It's likely the cougar was driven to return by hunger after failing to kill another deer, according to Jones.

Cougars are not rare in Sudden Valley given the community's little ravines and wooded areas coupled with plenty of deer, according to Jones.

"That area is absolutely loaded with deer," he said, describing the habitat as phenomenal.

But, usually, cougars don't allow themselves to be seen as this one did.

When Jones set the trap with the intent of moving the young animal, he said it was because the cougar hadn't caused problems or killed pets. But because the animal was between houses with its kill, Jones decided it was best to try to capture the cougar.

"There's no reason to kill that cat," Jones said on Monday.

Although frightened by her child's encounter with the cougar, Werner Clark supported Jones' decision and praised the actions of wildlife officers.

"I'm so happy that they didn't just come out with an attitude of wanting to kill the cougar to 'keep us all safe,' " she said. "The cougar lives here. This cougar just lacked the smarts of staying out of people's way."

She said she would talk to her children again about what they should do if they come across a cougar.

"This is just part of living here," Werner Clark said.

Also known as mountain lions or pumas, cougars are most active from dusk to dawn. They are solitary and rarely seen in the wild, according to Fish and Wildlife.

Additional information about cougars is online at wdfw.wa.gov/living/cougars.