Susan McPherson knew something was wrong after her dog, Mate, ran into the backyard at 3:30 a.m., and she did not hear his usual barking.
So she followed him - and spotted a mountain lion.
"I saw a large cat walking away," McPherson said. "I yelled at it. And he turned his head, and there was this gray dog (in the mountain lion's mouth) ... like a rag doll. So, I'm like, 'This can't be my dog.'"
Mate is a 12-year-old Australian cattle dog with arthritis.
"I continued to approach (the mountain lion)," McPherson said. "I'm yelling at him and I'm shining my light. He gets down to the pond -- he goes up to the other side. And he releases my dog, and this limp body just collapses."
While trying to ward off the mountain lion with threats and a flashlight, McPherson picked Mate up with one arm and struggled back uphill toward her home.
"He has a lot of injuries," she said. "There are about 20 puncture wounds. He's got two drains. He's in a lot of pain, with damage to the ear."
A local veterinarian said there are a handful of attacks in the Placerville area each year, but usually, mountain lions go after much smaller pets.
McPherson thought the 6-foot-fence in the backyard would've protected her and her family from a mountain lion.
Now, she plans on adding motion sensors and building an enclosed pen for Mate.
To ward off mountain lions, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife suggests installing motion-sensitive lighting, trimming brush to reduce hiding places and avoiding plants that deer like to eat, since deer can draw mountain lions to an area.
Reader Comments
@Carolina4:
Show us a place with no motorization and no technology and we'll show you a terrorist training center and terrorist hideout.
We must continue to re-make the earth into a giant Disneyland, and keep it all under secure corporate control and domination.
Then we'll be safe.
And our animated plastic fruit will continue to multiply and prosper and bring wealth.
signed,
goofy, mickey and donald duck
the lion king
bambi
cinderella
sleeping beauty
and the rest
Seriously? A 12 year old cattle dog with arthritis?!! Doesn't she see what's going to happen to HER in the future? Surely arthritis isn't normal?
My recommendation to this lady is that she clone her dog and keep three of them. In addition to all the other technology, advocated. She would then have a spare and an extra, 'Mate'. This is just good preparedness and responsible living and is entirely reasonable and shouldn't cost that much. The bank would quite possibly give her a loan, just as it does for all the other technological advances.
Further, she should clone herself and have three of herself, just in case a mountain lion, which is a form of terrorist, cracks her security codes, rendering them ineffective and advances to the highly coveted position of uber-terrorist and evil genius.
One thing that bothers me most: Then what if the uber-terrorist mountain lion clones itself?
It might not stop at just a sane and reasonable number (3) of clones of itself, it might actually clone itself a thousand times. Think of this: A thousand uber-terrorists! Maybe, even, more.
This is why we have to stop the terrorist threat, in its tracks.
And we must do it now, through government and the military and through wise fiscal and monetary poicies.
signed,
a rational thinking prime number
SOtt editors,
PLEASE STOP AUTOPLAYING@! Some of us do not have unlimited bandwidth and must limit video to keep prices down! Please let us choose what videos to play... besides it is alarming for random noises to happen in some tab I open for later viewing...