About 3 years ago I moved to a fairly remote area in the WV mountains. My neighbor, a long time local farmer said that he and others in the area had seen a mountain lion a couple times over the years. I just blew it off and didn't really give any thought to it. Whatever.
2 years ago I looked out the bedroom window at about 11 pm to see if it was snowing and saw a line of tracks about 3 ft from the house in the snow. Large and round, and in the pattern of a cat. Didn't go out and look at them closer as it was late and I had to get up early. They were snowed under in the morning.
About 6 months later I was reading in the living room at about 8 pm. Quiet moonlit evening. My husky was on a lead on the front porch and jumped up and ran to the end of his lead. He didn't bark but was looking in the direction of the barn. I got up to see if someone had driven up to the barn. I saw a large form with a long tail gliding toward the barn. It crossed the driveway and walked across the concrete apron of the barn under the dusk to dawn light. Couldn't believe what I was seeing when it got under the light. It made the hair stand up on my neck and I was in the house about 100 feet from the barn. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was a mountain lion. I've seen bears, coyotes, dogs, bobcats, etc on that same piece of ground and at similar distances. It was none of those.
The WVDNR also says that they don't exist in our area. I have no photographic proof of what I saw so I guess I didn't see it.
I can tell you this, I didn't walk outside at night for the next month without turning the lights on first.