I actually ran into a cougar when I was in high school. I turned a corner on a path through a canyon and surprised a cougar that was dozing on a rock. I was wearing a flannel shirt tied around my waist at the time (hey, the grunge look was “in” then). Grabbed the bottom corners of it, flipped it up across my shoulders kinda like a cobra hood and tried to make myself look as big as I could, and backed away real slowly. Miss Cougar jumped to her feet, growled and hissed at me once, then took off the other direction. Scared the crap outta me!