Early Monday, Vilas County, Wisconsin sheriff's deputy Ty Peterson spotted a cougar—no, not a mythical, middle-aged, sex-seeking ladyhuman, but a large pouncey cat—prowling around in his backyard. Using this information, a relative of Peterson's decided to play a practical joke on him. It succeeded—in a way.

Reports leave several key questions unanswered, but apparently the relative went over to Peterson's house on Monday evening and pretended to be the cougar. Now, whether she dressed up in a cougar costume or simply pulled off an incredibly convincing pantomime job isn't clear, but in any case, she definitely fooled Peterson enough so that he mistook her for the cougar he'd spotted earlier that day, thought he was being attacked, and shot her. Man, I bet he was surprised to discover what was really going on! Though the relative was probably even more surprised, to be shot.

Luckily, the gunshot wound wasn't life-threatening, but the relationship between Peterson and his relative might now be a bit strained. It's not even like cougars attack humans all that often.

[WSAW, image via AP]