Mountain Lion kills indoor cat

[Davis]

A mountain lion broke through a window screen and killed an indoor pet cat in it's own home. This story is just horrible. If it were me, I would not have hid out until the lion was gone. I would have fought it with my bare hands to protect my cat, but I suppose it was too late in this case.

I will not be sleeping with my windows open this summer. And now I'm worried every time my cat is enjoying the sun and fresh air of an open window. I watched him like a hawk today as he sat on his window sill. I live in the mountains, in an area highly populated with lions.

A while back, a house not far from me was broken into by a bear (more than once). The bear kept returning to raid the refrigerator. He came right in through the front door, ripping it off the hinges. It's bad enough we have to worry about pet food, or "people" crimes. Some of us are living in areas where we have to worry about animals breaking in and killing our pets. Here are 2 articles that reported the upsetting story.
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=23314
http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/articles/2007/05/07/news/news02.txt

[Cindy Nevarez]

That cat was pretty hungry to do something like that.

[Davis]

Not really. The area is absolutely full of deer...in fact, totally overrun with them. And, there are lots of other animals available for predators. This is very disturbing. The lions can be frighteningly impulsive.

 

[Cindy Nevarez]

That's what I thought too....I've been to that area where you are. It doesn't make any sense then why this cat would act this way.

[garypen]

Mountain lions attack, and kill, humans here in California all the time. It's sad what happened to the cat. Incredibly sad. But, it's nature. And, there's no way the owner could have done anything to save the pet, and would have been killed herself for trying. It's really that simple.

[Davis]

Yes, it's nature, which is why we have "indoor" cats...to protect them from nature and the other dangers that are out there in the big bad world. In this case nature took an unusual turn and became an in indoor incident. They attack and kill humans, but can often be scared away as well. It depends on the circumstance and how it is handled. Fighting the lion with my bare hands was an exaggeration based on the horror I can only imagine I would feel, but I would have done something within reason if my cat was still alive. This would not be wise for most people who value their safety, but I am a bit of an oddball in that way. However, in this case the cat was already dead, so there would have been no point. This was a very sad story.