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Hey, good morning. It's Patricia Murphy. It's Tuesday. This is Seattle now.

I'm eternally grateful to each of the ladies that did this incredible thing for me, you know.

That's the voice of Carrie Berger.

She was cycling through the Cascade foothills north of Snowqualmie last month

when a cougar leapt out on her and locked its jaws around her face.

The four friends with her fought the cat off with nothing but some stones and their bikes for 45 minutes.

Everyone starts screaming, and then she's like, grab a stick, and I had this rock, and I just kept throwing it.

And I'm like, why is this thing not even releasing or moving?

KUOW's Angela King will tell us their story in a minute.

Be warned, it does have some gruesome details.

But first, let's get you caught up.

Applications for Seattle's preschool program are open.

The city says it's able to serve about 2,500 kids thanks to an

expansion. It provides low-cost or free child care at a total of 151 locations across the city.

The expansion adds 16 more classrooms. After a late start in the mountains, some ski resorts

...