BUTTE – It was the big cat’s eyes that haunted Eric Boyd. The 14-year-old from Anaconda was hoping to bag his first elk on opening day Sunday. Instead, he found himself face to face with a large mountain lion.

“It was his eyes that really hit me,” he told The Montana Standard Friday. “They stared right at me and were glowing yellow-green.”

Eric Boyd and his dad, Mike Boyd, were hunting in the Jerry Creek area, southwest of Butte. They were tracking a lone elk, so Eric took up a position near an outcropping of rocks while his dad moved up the ridge to try to push the elk toward his son.

The young hunter waited for a long time but never saw the elk.

“I heard a twig crack behind me and I thought my dad was coming back,” he recalled.

It wasn’t his father.

The Anaconda High freshman turned and walked a few steps, then he saw it: A cougar stepped from behind a tree about 25 yards ahead of him. The animal sat there and the two just stared at each other for what Eric Boyd felt was about 20 seconds.

“I was more shocked than afraid. I was face to face with this animal and I had never seen one in the wild before,” he said.

The cat then hunched its shoulders and started walking toward him.

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