On the evening of June 10, 1872, a "fine mare" owned by David Graham fights with a cougar to protect her colt. Graham's farm is located at Seattle's present-day south boundary just east of the Duwamish River (45th Avenue S to 50th Avenue S and S Leo St to S Juniper St). The mare suffers "deep and severe cuts" on her neck and face (Puget Sound Dispatch). The colt dies of its injuries the following day.
The Weekly Intelligencer described the encounter between the mare and cougar as follows:
"Her appearance would indicate a long continued struggle, and, from the fact that she prevented the animal from killing her colt outright, which it injured, however, so seriously as to cause its death the next morning, it would seem that she must have used her hoofs most adroitly and successfully, and rather discomfitted [sic] that sanguinary and terrible specimen of the feline race" (The Weekly Intelligencer June 17, 1872).
On July 31, 1872, a cougar, apparently the same one, killed one of J. B. McCallister's calves. McCallister, a farmer of land located near Graham's, allowed his cattle to range over the countryside without fences. Concerned that his other stock might be injured or killed, McCallister acquired some strychnine and applied it to the carcass of the calf killed by the cougar. The following morning he discovered that the cougar had returned and consumed more of the dead animal. McCallister followed its tracks and located the cougar suffering from the effects of the poisoned meat. He shot the cougar and skinned it. McCallister planned to tan the eight-foot-long hide and turn it into a robe.
