COEUR d'ALENE — Elmer and Bernadine Currie couldn't figure out why the deer that frequent their backyard pond have been noticeably absent in recent months.

Bernadine thought she observed one Sunday night, though, when she looked out a window during a family gathering and briefly saw what appeared to be a deer in the brush.

Instead, Bernadine and Elmer soon learned why the deer haven't been around.

When their son, former Kootenai County Commissioner Rick Currie, walked outside the residence near 15th and Best Avenue to identify the creature, he was immediately taken aback.

"I saw this big cat," said Rick, now the administrative director of Lake City Center. "That's not a deer, I said, that's a damn bobcat. Then my brother says, no, that's a cougar."

Spotting a mountain lion in proximity to one of Coeur d'Alene’s busiest streets and more populous areas was an oddity in itself — but there were more.

When the cougar, located on the east end of the pond near a woodsy area, took off, three more cougars appeared and followed. The sighting was around 6:45 p.m., and Rick said he was about 100 feet away from the animal.

"When the cougar went through the big-sized opening into the cattails, another comes out. Then another," Rick said. "Thirty seconds later, the fourth one came out."

Rick, also a hunter, then grabbed his binoculars and took another look for the four felines.

"When I zeroed in on them, they were over there watching us," he said.

This is the second cougar sighting in the area in a week. The previous Sunday, a Hayden women spotted one at her Stonehaven Drive home while watering her lawn.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game spokesman Phil Cooper has dealt with his share of single cougar sightings throughout his career, but was surprised to hear of four.

"Definitely a rarity," Cooper said. "But it was likely a mother and her three cubs. The cubs can be just as big as the mother."

Considering Elmer and Bernadine Currie's residence's nearness to Canfield Mountain, Cooper said it's not unusual to have a cougar sighting and that the cats don't stay around.

"On that side of town, there's forested mountains where they can come down," Cooper said. "They're here for a day or two then leave, because they don't like all that activity."