A family in central California was shocked to discover a mountain lion in its home Sunday night and even more concerned when the distressed cat ran for cover right into the bathroom.
With no where to run and trapped in the small room, the feline did what anyone else might do: it lied down and took a cat nap, according to news reports.
With an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 mountain lions roaming the state, the Sacramento Bee reported, California wildlife officials said wayward lions sometimes slip into people's homes.
"I've been around for 23 years and never used to see this happen, but in the last four years or so we've had about one a year where a lion actually goes into somebody's house," Capt. Patrick Foy, with the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife, told KOVR-TV.
Foy said the lion was a juvenile and probably entered the house in Sonora in the Sierra Nevada foothills searching for meat, KOVR reported.
Neighbor Samantha Huebner, who saw a photo of the cat, said it was a scary sight.
“The size of his paws was terrifying. When I looked at it and zoomed in on the paws, it was terrifying to see,” Huebner said.
In the end, wildlife officials took the only course of action they could think of. They broke the bathroom window, then banged on the door inside. The frightened cat did just what it was expected to do. It jumped out of the window and made a beeline for freedom.
California wildlife officials, according to the news station, do not consider a wayward mountain lion a threat to public safety, unless it is behaving in an aggressive manner.
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