In 15 years in Wesern NH I have seen a cougar 2 times. Once crossing the highway - and I mean one leap and a paw on the yellow line and he was gone. The second time was bow hunting around some rocky cliffs. I saw him go above me and he stuck his head out from around a tree and looked right at me - and I had been sitting dead still for 2 hours or more in a good clump of hemlock. I then went up and saw his track - definately a cat.