What some people will do!

Had a weird experience this week...while hiking with friends in the Eagle's Nest Wilderness, we were lunching at Piney Creek Falls when we heard a cat. This is over 3 miles from the trailhead, which starts at a fairly primitive tourist facility on a lake on private land just outside the National Forest boundary. A very sweet little girl, about 6-8 months I would guess, came when we called; wolfed down bits of turkey, cheese and ham from our sandwiches and otherwise endeared herself. There are morons who will hike with cats riding in their daypacks...we think she rode up, and then got away, and her transport couldn't find her, so abondoned her to the coyotes, ferrets, raptors....or starvation. She rode out in one of our daypacks, and it turns out she was a mouser at the tourist trap. We had to leave her there, which broke our hearts, as a mouser she and her siblings just run loose there, in almost as much danger from predators as in the back country. They do get fussed over by the visitors, and I'm sure somebody thought it would be "fun" to give her a ride. I've been worrying about her ever since we come back on Thursday.