Monday was a long day. Started around six-thirty, ended some time before midnight. There was the meeting, and getting the emergency lights and enforcement radio to work properly in the truck, and then dashing across the desert to classify pronghorn.

And then there was the call from dispatch around nine-oh-eight that night. Right after I'd watched the almost full moon rise over the divide.

And that incident took the rest of the day. And part of the next morning. And Tuesday afternoon, as I filed the "Trophy Game Incident Report"...

Date: 8/18/2008 (I hate when folks set software up to force you to enter dates in their old, antiquated, illogical format.)
Species: MOUNTAIN LION
Investigators: (well, me, of course)
Agency: (the Outfit's initials here)
Time of Conflict: 2100
Back/Front Country: (Now, we all know what "Back country" is, but I'd never heard the term "Front country" before. Kinda cool. This incident was in town, so...) FRONT COUNTRY
Reporting Party: Gary's name, of course.
Datum:NAD-83
UTM E 31#### UTM N 462#### UTM Z 13
Management Unit: SOUTHWEST (I had to look this one up. A couple miles over, and it would have been "Southeast".
Geographic Location/Drainage: (umm, how about Gary's street address?)
Land Status: PRIVATE

Conflict Type: CLOSE ENCOUNTER
Number of People: 3
Primary Human Activity: IN BUILDING/DWELLING
Secondary Human Activity: N/A
Weapon Used: N/A (Only because they didn't include "Firecracker" in the list of possible weapons.)
Animal Response: APPROACH (Yeah, that's what got people concerned.)
Bear Spray: NOT CARRIED (Tell me, do you carry bear spray when you go out onto your deck?)

Animal Activity: MATING
Resolution: INVESTIGATE
Animal Status: OK
Quantities: 3 Unkwn
Group Size: 3

Comments:
3 adult lions were seen fighting (mating?) behind two homes at northern edge of town in rocky hills. One lion approached between two homes, within 15m of 3 adults and an infant on a raised deck. When advised by phone not to shoot at the lion, Mr. B. used firecrackers and the lion instead jumped closer to the deck. People retreated inside the home. Town PD were first to respond, seeing only the tail end of one lion fleeing north away from homes. Search of area found no sign of any kills.

A few things the official report does not include:

When I finally got to town, I found three cop cars and four cops standing between the two homes, all spotlights and flashlights aimed at one point of the rocks behind. The Lieutenant advised he saw one lion running off over the hill, but "We've got one pinned down in our lights. You see his eyeshine?"

Well, just barely. I mean, the barest glimmer of one speck of reflective light green.

I'm going up for a better look.

Lieutenant comes along, sidearm on his hip. Yes, the thought of a panicked lion making a charge had occurred to me, but to be truthful I was much more concerned about:
A) the possibility of stepping on a rattlesnake in those rocks in the dark
B) the young, eager cop behind us with his Mini-14 (the assault rifle favored by many SWAT teams) at the ready.

The second or third call I had on this incident, whilst still out in the desert many miles from town, was the PD asking if they "could shoot the lions, for public safety."

My answer was, No. Only if the lion comes down to where the people are. If it's the reverse, 'NO'. This big young man was itching to shoot something.

As we slowly climb the hill, the lieutenant crying out in pain from the cacti that stuck him in the ankle, a cop below shouts out the lion is turning its head towards us, with its ears up.

"They're awfully big ears for a lion..."

We're close now, so I check with my binocs.

That's a deer.

A deer fawn.

Lieutenant glasses the scared little critter, and sheepishly agrees. Shouting to the officers below "It's a deer!"

Might as well check to see if it's okay...

It was. Bounded off just fine. But not very far. and not out of the lights.

Well, there's three huge deer predators in the rocks above. Would you go up there in the dark?

So back down the hill we go, to visit with the witnesses, and get the whole story. Sounds like they had a female lion in heat, and two competing suitors. One of which quit or got driven off, and fled towards the houses. The owner, from a long-time ranching family, is still concerned that the lion ran towards the deck when he threw firecrackers at it. Even went to grab one of the M-1000 bombs to show us what he was using.

Ummm, are you sure you want to do that with him (nodding towards the cop) here? Those are illegal here, and anywhere in the county...

But I point out firecrackers aren't like guns. The scary noise doesn't come from you. And the natural response for a scared lion is to either try to hide (like under your deck) or climb higher (like on your deck). I doubt if it even noticed the people.

As we chat, his out-of-state sister-in-law comes running out to tell us "They're back! We can hear them out the back door."

So without asking permission (I heard the wife mutter "Thank God I cleaned house today.") we all charge through their house to the backyard. And listen.

Nothing.

Sister-in-law explains "It wasn't a fighting noise like before, more like a kitten noise."

I make a gentle "Meeeeuww! noise.

"That's it exactly!"

That's a deer fawn calling for its mom.

"NO! It was different, something else."

Ooookay. Time to go home, now.

The lieutenant and I are the last to leave, each promising to come back in the morning to check the hillside to make sure there isn't a carcass of something up there to attract the lions back (there wasn't).

I quietly patrol all the neighborhood streets where the fleeing lions may have ended up, and the cemetery.

Lots of deer.

No lions.

Which is a good thing.