In a scene straight out of Jumanji or another wild adventure movie, a 68-year-old man named Robert Douglass Junior is accused of secretly harboring a whole menagerie of wild animals right in the middle of a quiet Albany neighborhood! On August 14, Douglass made his first court appearance, facing a slew of charges that would make anyone's head spin. The list of animals allegedly kept in his tiny duplex is nothing short of jaw-dropping: a cougar, a red-tailed hawk, an American kestrel, a goldfinch, a great horned owl, two barn owls, and even a buck deer. Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, he's also in trouble for unlawful possession of firearms.
Imagine living in a neighborhood where your next-door neighbor is secretly keeping a cougar and you never even knew! Heath Henry, who lives right next door, is just as stunned as the rest of us. His home shares a fence with Douglass' property, and like everyone else on Oak Street, he had no clue about the wild zoo just beyond that rickety barrier.
"We're out in our backyard all the time, just on the other side of that fence," Henry said in disbelief. "It's a tiny home, with a tiny yard—how could something like this go unnoticed?"
Henry did recall one eerie moment when he glimpsed something unusual. From his upstairs window, he could see into Douglass' backyard and spotted what he thought were two very large cats inside a cage. But these weren’t your everyday house cats. "They looked like they weighed 40 to 50 pounds, and they definitely weren’t normal cats," Henry explained, clearly still in shock.
As reported by KEZI, the authorities finally entered Douglass' home in July, accompanied by Oregon State Police. What they found confirmed everyone's worst fears: the wild animals were indeed there, along with some that had tragically died.
The news has sent ripples of fear through the community. Henry, like many of his neighbors, is now worried about the safety of their pets. "We have so many outdoor cats in this neighborhood, and they love to wander around, even walking on our backyard fence," Henry said, his voice tinged with concern. "The thought of losing our dogs or cats to a cougar is terrifying."
Douglass is set to have his first court hearing on September 23, and until then, the neighborhood remains in a state of stunned disbelief. It's a reminder that you never really know what's going on just beyond the fence.
