Rawr

I can’t believe this, but in all of my lists lately, I forgot to sneak in something very important! How could I forget? Frankly, I’m ashamed of myself. We had a mountain lion up the street a few weeks ago!

Meow!

In 2022, we had a lot of mountain lions down here in the valley. It was my greatest hope that I would find one! I should be scared of them, but I’m not. The way I see it is… if they’re by my house, and I run into one, I’m very likely to be near a “safe” structure. In the suburbs, I’m rarely far from a building or vehicle. So, mountain lions, come hither! I want to find you (just not in the dark with the glowy eyes). I do not want to cross paths with a mountain lion in its own territory, though, with nowhere to take cover. 

That year, the sightings kept getting closer and closer to my house. There were suspected to be multiple mountain lions out and about, but one came very close to our area and there were rumors of sightings in our own neighborhood. Finally, one was found a couple of miles away, and the DWR supposedly tranquilized and relocated it. We were out of town when it happened, and I was so disappointed when I heard. Not only was I not the one to find the mountain lion, I wasn’t even here!

The next week, my family went to the zoo, and they had a DWR table set up with pamphlets and posters about what to do when you see a wild animal. I told Scotty I needed to go talk to them, and I marched right over there. I had some questions because there were people in my neighborhood that had said that you shouldn’t call the DWR about animals in the area because they can’t tranquilize and relocate them - they have to euthanize them. My curiosity about animals that wander out of their safe places has been piqued greatly since the Deer Incident of 2021. It just so happened that one of the people who had tranquilized the mountain lion in our area was at the table at the zoo! He confirmed that, yes, they had tranquilized it and relocated it.

The guy told me a few interesting things. First, he told me that when there is a mountain lion sighting reported, they usually only come out if the animal is contained. I had to clarify what that meant because I suddenly pictured myself all “Here, kitty, kitty!” trying to get a mountain lion in a kennel. But what that means is basically that the mountain lion needs to be in a tree. They won’t come try and track a mountain lion that’s on the move because the cat can cover a lot of ground by the time they get there.

The other thing they told me is that while they were waiting for the tranquilizer to kick in on the mountain lion in our area, they got a call about another mountain lion sighting nearby. Since they were already in the area, they went looking for it and found it, but it was moving too quickly to do anything. Thus, there was still potential for me to find a mountain lion! Alas, we never crossed paths, but I kept my eyes out for weeks and weeks!

This year, we’ve once again has several mountain lion sightings in our area. A few Fridays ago, Scotty and I were driving to the high school and saw a bunch of police cars up our street. Right as we passed them, we saw a DNR truck pull up. Scotty said, “Maybe there’s a mountain lion!” I said, “Well, that’s the Department of Natural Resources, not the Department of Wildlife Resources, so maybe it’s a pot farm!” We checked with my step-dad (who works for the police department) to see if he knew what was going on. He wasn’t able to access the info. Later we heard that there was, in fact, a mountain lion which is way more exciting than a pot field! Turns out, the DWR is a division of the DNR. 

As the evening went on, they had more and more personnel reporting to the scene. They tranquilized the cat intending to have it fall out of the tree into a net, but it fell asleep in the tree instead. They ended up having to have the fire department come help get it down via ladder truck.

Once again, it wasn’t me who found the mountain lion, but the guy who did is the brother of my elementary school crush, so I feel like my turn is getting closer.