What's Shakin', Chicago?

So in the past week we've had a mountain lion wander into the city — despite being considered "extinct" in this region — and an earthquake.

I've received a few e-mails asking me if the tremors interrupted my beauty sleep, so I thought I'd post a little something here:

No, I didn't feel anything. The fault is way south of here, though apparently the tremors did shake the skyscrapers and definitely caught the attention of Chicagoans already awake at that hour.

Some of my co-workers were among that group. And my family about 150 miles due southeast woke up rather early this morning, my sister thinking a big truck was speeding along the street; my mother thinking a massive wind was shaking their little home.

But otherwise: no odd stories, no personal accounts.

As for that cougar... they determined it was, in fact, wild (and not some escaped pet) and it's beginning to look like it may have friends.

A whole new reason to take pepper spray whilst jogging. I hear they hate being jabbed in the eye and/or being shot six times by the police.*


*Though I'd have preferred a tranquilizer gun be used to spare the creature's life, I also understand the police (though I am not normally one to jump to the CPD's defense) did what they felt they had to do at the time. And, besides, after one shot you better keep firing: only thing worse than a healthy — albeit frightened — mountain lion lost in a city is an angry, wounded one.