Mountain lion snatches dog from owners' bedroom

[Bob Juch]

Not for the Bored's four-footers

Spoiler

By Ann Schrader
The Denver Post

A mountain lion slunk into the master bedroom of an Idledale, Colorado home early Monday, snatched a yellow Labrador retriever and vanished.

Officers are hunting the mountain lion and have set a trap, said Jennifer Churchill, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

"A lion that will brazenly go into someone's bedroom . . . we need to be careful of," Churchill said.

The dog's body was found near the property.

Churchill said the residents had left open the French doors to their bedroom, apparently to cool the house, and didn't have screens.

There were dogs sleeping in the bedroom when the mountain lion entered between 4 and 4:30 a.m.

Idledale, between Morrison and Evergreen along Bear Creek, "is definitely in lion country," Churchill said. "It's not unheard of for unattended or easy-to-get-to pets to be taken by mountain lions in areas from Boulder to Evergreen."

Mountain lions are known to partially eat their kill and then cache it for later meals by covering it with leaves and pine needles, Churchill said.

UPDATE: The mountain lion that slunk into the master bedroom of an Idledale home early Monday and snatched a yellow Labrador has been trapped and killed.

Officials with the Division of Wildlife said the mountain lion was found in a trap set yesterday and was subsequently shot.

The animal was a 130-pound male. A necropsy will be performed in hopes of finding clues about the animal's behavior.

"A lion that will brazenly go into someone's bedroom ... we need to be careful of," said Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill.

The dog's body was found near the property.

Churchill said the residents had left open the french doors to their bedroom, apparently to cool the house, and didn't have screens.

There were two dogs sleeping in the bedroom when the mountain lion entered between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Monday The mountain lion grabbed one.

Idedale, between Morrison and Evergreen along Bear Creek, "is definitely in lion country," Churchill said. "It's not unheard of for unattended or easy-to-get-to pets to be taken by mountain lions in the area from Boulder to Evergreen."

Mountain lions are known to partially eat their kill and then cache it by covering it with leaves and pine needles and will come back later on, Churchill said.

[frogman042]

Are they sure that it wasn't a dingo?

---Jay (OK - Dingo -> Australia -> Oz -> Emerald: The emerald wedding anniversary is in years what days are to my air date)

[tanstaafl2]

Either they were young dogs or kind of wussy as Labs aren't that small. Did they not put up any fight at all? Maybe they were heavy sleepers...

And where the heck were the people at 0430? Wouldn't they have heard something? Maybe they did and the article didn't make it clear. It seems to imply they were in the same bedroom as the dogs.

[TheConfessor]

UPDATE: The mountain lion that slunk into the master bedroom of an Idledale home early Monday and snatched a yellow Labrador has been trapped and killed.

Officials with the Division of Wildlife said the mountain lion was found in a trap set yesterday and was subsequently shot.

OK, so they killed a mountain lion. I saw nothing to indicate that it was THE mountain lion. Sounds like another rush to judgment.

[ghostjmf]

taanstaafl2 says:

Either they were young dogs or kind of wussy as Labs aren't that small. I am, uh, supressing asking how you & a friend of equal size would rate against a mountain lion, armed only with some claw & teeth augmentation.

Wussy? The average house pet dog is not encouraged to display anti-mountain lion behavior. They will display extreme bravery against any kind of animal attacking their humans, or their own young, but in self-defense against a wild mountain lion I doubt even a pair of very non-wussy, but non-attack-dogs, could hold the lion off very long.

[tanstaafl2]

taanstaafl2

Either they were young dogs or kind of wussy as Labs aren't that small. I am, uh, supressing asking how you & a friend of equal size would rate against a mountain lion, armed only with some claw & teeth augmentaion.

Wussy? The average house pet dog is not encouraged to display anti-mountain lion behavior. They will display extreme bravery against any kind of animal attacking their humans, or their own young, but in self-defense against a wild mountain lion I doubt even a pair of very non-wussy, but non-attack-dogs, could hold the lion off very long.

Don't know how I might do. Since I am also armed with a .38 in my bedroom, if I have time to get to it, I might do OK. Then again I wouldn't have my door wide open at 0400 either...

But I am not a dog. And I would think a good sized dog, and especially two good sized dogs, might at least have a chance. Not like it was a chihuahua or a couple of weiner dogs. Maybe they did put up a fight as the story seems light on detail, not that it is really important I suppose.

But you would think they would at least some make noise. And I suspect unless this cat was very young, starving and/or desperate, which is possible since they noted it only weighed 130 pounds and that is on the smallish side for cougar and was entering a house which seems odd behavior as well, that a determined fight might encourage it to seek easier prey. Of course if it was hungry and/or desperate then normal behavior goes out the window.

Or the french doors as the case may be.

[Bob Juch]

UPDATE: The mountain lion that slunk into the master bedroom of an Idledale home early Monday and snatched a yellow Labrador has been trapped and killed.

Officials with the Division of Wildlife said the mountain lion was found in a trap set yesterday and was subsequently shot.

OK, so they killed a mountain lion. I saw nothing to indicate that it was THE mountain lion. Sounds like another rush to judgment.

Yes, big bad mama is probably still out there.