Once thought to be as old as the dawn of time, the THS Cougar Claw has now confirmed that the large metal cougar that sits outside the school’s front entrance was actually placed there in 2005.

An interview with Superintendent Huey Kinchen, who was principal at the time of the statue’s construction, shed some light on the history of this odd looking piece of artwork, dubbed by some students as “The Cougoyle” – a mixture of cougar and gargoyle.

As it turns out, the sculpture was actually created by a local artist for that year’s Fine Arts Festival.

“He had done some metal work with birds that was really nice” Kinchen said of the artist, “So when the new principal came on board, we commissioned him to design a cougar out of metal.”

However, even when the cougar was completed and in place, a tarp cover would ensure that no one but the artist knew what it looked like until the day of the festival when it was unveiled. The visage of the statue also graces the cover of the 2005 yearbook, fittingly called The Cougar.

The superintendent was pleased with the statue himself, but admits that there are mixed feelings among students and the community.

“It’s taken a while to get used to it,” Kinchen said. “There are some that don’t like it and I understand and there are some that perhaps do like it. It’s very different – I would call it unique.

“Obviously there are some things about that cougar that don’t reflect what a real cougar looks like.”

The stuffed cougar that sits inside the school, on the other hand, is much older.

Kinchen said that the taxidermy animal was at Tomball High even before he was, donated by a generous patron long ago. It was placed next to the front office shortly after Kinchen became principal in 1999, having languished forgotten in a hallway deep in the school.