I used to do a lot of hiking on Vancouver Island when I lived there. The Island has the highest concentration of Cougars in North America. We ran into black bears ALL the time, but that never worried me, but I always had a bit of fear in the back of my mind of Cougars. My nieghbor's dog was killed by a cougar while they were out hiking, and he had to be "rescued" once as he was hiking alone and 3 cougars starting circling him (luckily someone came along 4x4'ing on the power-line access road he was on! While I lived there, there was a US Naval Officer who was riding his bike along the highway and a cougar took him right off it and killed him (I think it killed him, actually, it's also possible a motorist stopped and saved him, can't remember now). I think they are beautiful animals, but I am weary of them!
That would be a terrible thing for that woman to watch!