Lion, Tigers and Ligers, Oh Brother!

The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get much sleep.
Woody Allen, writer, director, actor

I have tried to ignore this story, because I really didn’t think it was much of a story. Simi Valley (an area that I call home, similar to George Bailey in Bedford Falls, meaning I will never get the hell out of here, despite my best efforts) is surrounded by hills, lots of them, hence the Valley half of the name, so to hear that a large, carnivorous, feline mammal such as a mountain lion is roaming around comes as no big surprise.

When I lived in an apartment in the hills of Topanga (not the famed canyon area, the northern hills), the wife and I walked around the mansions hidden in the hills and there were signs aplenty warning people to be cautious of mountain lions when walking around at sunset. One day, on our way out for a walk, this older woman stops us and asks if I know anything about guns. She had a loaded Colt 45 with the hammer pulled back and asked if I could release it without firing the gun, it seems there was a rattle snake slithering about that she was going to blow away, if not a neighbor or herself first.

So wild life in Simi is nothing new or newsworthy. But, I just heard on NPR that this mountain lion may now be a lion or a “liger,” you guessed it, a cross between the two. Wildlife officials are guessing that the cat weights between 400 to 600 pounds based on a hubcap-size paw print.

The rains have helped the large cat cover its tracks for the past week or two, but now there is a Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid style posse going after it, so it’s probably just a matter of time, before some potbellied ranger all excited about a big game hunt using the latest high-technology gadgets captures or kills this animal and brags about it.

You can probably guess that I am rooting for the lion or liger to elude authorities and go on a rampage feasting on every available barking dog. I'll keep you posted on the hunt.