Linda Dyck snapped this photo of the cougar as it crossed her property in southern Manitoba on May 11, 2008. (Submitted by Linda Dyck)A woman in southern Manitoba snapped a nice photograph of a cat in her rural backyard on Mother's Day — but it wasn't a cute little kitty: her camera captured a rare cougar.

Linda Dyck came face-to-face on Sunday with the cougar running through her yard near Plum Coulee, Man., about 90 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

Her husband, Abe Dyck, spotted the big cat in a stand of trees near their property. Then two men who had also seen the cougar came in a truck to warn them about it.

Abe asked her to grab a camera take a picture while the three men tried to flush the cat out of the trees.

"He had seen it. So he knew it was big. But he just never said anything to me.… He just said, 'Come on, get the camera,' you know, and one of the other guys said, 'You stand right here,' and then he went into the bush," she told CBC News on Thursday.

"I'm standing, very obediently, standing there waiting to take this picture for these guys.

"I'm expecting like a bobcat sort of thing, like an oversized cat," she said. "All of a sudden, it's right in front of me.

"It was huge…. It was jumping. It was running. Then when it just kind of went by, then I finally came to my senses and I thought, 'I'm supposed to be taking a picture!' so then I took a picture of it."

'Nice, gentle face'

Dyck estimates she was about 10 metres from the cougar, which she thought was about three metres long.

"I was so close, he could've — I wouldn't have even had a chance had he wanted to pounce on me. But he obviously wasn't interested."

The whole thing happened so quickly, she didn't have time to be scared, she said.

"For a split second it just entered my mind, when he first came out, that he was so big and I thought, maybe, is this safe?" Dyck said.

"But I looked at his face, and he had a really nice, gentle face and he just kind of looked past me and I knew he's not even paying attention to me, other than he's turning a little bit, so I think it's OK, so I just quickly got my picture taken."

The habitat of the cougar — also known as the mountain lion, panther and puma — is believed to extend into Manitoba, but sightings are rare.

A cougar shot in Manitoba in 2004 was the first brought to the attention of authorities in the province in 32 years, according to wildlife officials. Another was found in a hunter's trap in 2005.