LOL Carson is a big baby, but he sure wasn't that night! Even though he and Ron are friends, Carson was on full out protection mode and Ron did right to be careful.
Yes there are cougars here and always have been. Some 40 years ago, I was camped out on Lake Livingston, just me and my dog, an Australian Shepherd. She didn't want in the back of the truck where I was sleeping until a cougar lit up and started screaming. Then she nearly clawed the paint off the truck until I got up and put her in the back of the truck with me.
I would rather have the coyotes than thieves. We heard coyotes killing a dog last night on the property next to us. The noise had several of us neighbors outside listening. The barking was a frightened dog under attack, punctuated with the yip, yip, yip of coyotes. Then it went silent. A neighbor said his dog was missing, we think we know where she went.