Loveless-Ash Company - The "Cougar" Story

We are often asked where we get the names for our products. Sometimes it is a little tough to come up with the right name! The following is how the name of "Cougar" Quiet Ash Vac came to be. This is an experience that Mike Loveless, the vice president and originator of our company, had in 1998, in the mountains about 20 minutes from our company offices in Price, Utah.

The following true experience from the 1998 archery deer hunt will last in my mind forever. August 22, 1998 was the opening of the archery deer hunt for the state of Utah. I have always enjoyed being in the mountains. The morning air was fresh and crisp. The smell of pine, the feel and music that the wind makes going through the trees was enough to make me forget all the challenges and stresses of everyday life. That is why I hunt!

The afternoons are cool and often raining. The pure smell of the air after a rainstorm can in no way be duplicated. Your senses are all centered on the hunt and the adrenaline rush when you spook up a nice buck deer or hear a majestic elk bugle in the evening is awesome. There are some things that money just can't buy!

On this particular afternoon with bow in hand, I was up on Bruin Point looking for deer sign in the bottom of a steep canyon where a small stream meandered through the rocks and clay terrain. I have seen on numerous occasions, bears in this area because there are a large variety of berries. The terrain seems to be just what they like. I have had no doubt that cougars are quite plentiful here. Usually either one of these predators will smell or hear you well before you get close enough to know that they are around. They will usually leave the area in ample time to let you pass harmlessly by.

I was coming up out of the steep bottom and suddenly froze in my tracks as I heard something behind me. Slowly I turned and just about dropped dead in my tracks as there in the trail behind me was a full grown mountain lion right smack dab in the middle of the same trail that I had just covered — and only 5-6 yards away! Pulling my eyeballs back into their sockets and gathering my senses, I yelled, "Get out of here you "SOB"... while waving my arms and bow up and down. (At times like this, you don't have time to choose your words for telling the story later.) Well that didn't work! The only thing that big cat did was breath a little harder. It was then that I noticed his tail came up and started to wave back and forth!

Now I haven't been around big cats like this very much but I could see that our meeting was quickly turning into nothing more than a game of cat and mouse. I was getting really worried who the mouse was going to be — me. Without stopping to think about it, I took an arrow out of my quiver and knocked it. I hooked up my release and never took my eyes off of those of the big feline. The only thing I kept thinking was "Mike you want to make a good shot on this one, it might be your last." Being alone, the last think I wanted to do was to have a wounded mountain lion turn on me! I pulled back the bow and took just a little longer to aim. I let the arrow fly, hitting him right through the throat. As the cat took off, I took a couple of steps back to watch which way he ran. I was very grateful that he did run. The cat ran about 30 yards and ended up side down under a tree with his feet straight up in the air. It was then that I noticed that I was shaking all over. I knocked an arrow, for just in case, and went up to the animal. I kept thinking, "If he is playing possum, I don't want any part of this game." I poked him with the arrow and he didn't move. I sat down thinking about what might have been and just how close I had come to death. That didn't help me at all. After about 10 minutes I felt better and went to find my friends.

I found out later that cats always attack from behind. Their jaws are so strong that they can separate your vertebrae and paralyze you. I am glad that I didn't know that at the time or I might have been more nervous.

I reported the incident to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) on Saturday. On Sunday, I took Officer Allen Green back to the place where I had my hair-raising experience. Allen confirmed that he was a tom measuring 6'11" and estimated it to be a younger animal, probably 2-3 years old. When Allen saw where the cat had been and where I had been standing, his comment was, "you are lucky you are a good shot."

Life will never be the same for me! "Life Is Good!"

We at Love-Less Ash Company were trying to find a name for our new Quiet Ash Vacuum and where we already had a Cheetah Ash Vac, we decided to keep with a big cat name. We came to the conclusion that the name COUGAR QUIET ASH VACUUM, would be a fitting name. Thus you can see how product names can come to be made.