Had an unexpected visitor this weekend

While at Pismo State Beach(Oceano) years ago, while sitting outside one morning, our Collie stood up and was staring at something. We looked and low and behold, a Mountain Lion was leisurely walking down the CG road way.....surprised the heck out of me. Later we saw the sign indicating that Mountain Lion's are in the area and to report sightings.

We hear them yipping and occasionally see one cross the pasture below the house, the cat goes nuts looking for a place to hide. She must have had a run in with them. We find them interesting but the farmer's hate the beggars, one woman is trying to find someone to shoot them all. Apparently they find her chickens quite tasty.:B

We live in Los Angeles City, near the Rose Bowl, Occidental College and South of the 134 Freeway. Looking out our front window(our front is in the back)we see coyote trails all over the vacant lots below our home and the little beggars try to get to the water in our sprinkler system by chewing the sprinkler heads off. One was denning under our neighbors house and about 15 feet from our bedroom.

We can see Griffith Park from the front window, that is where P22 lives. P for PUMA.

The wilds are here in Los Angeles.

We have more than our fair share of coyotes here at the house. Coyote hunting is becoming almost as popular as deer hunting around here.

We have had an influx of the Coyote in our neighborhood. I have heard the den-mates greet returning pack animals in the evening. The neighbor reports that one brave animal reached up and was looking into his window one night, probably alerted to the scent of his dog inside the house.

Until recently, we had litters of cats patrolling our yard and the neighborhood. We lost three kittens one night, probably to a Coyote. We decided to keep two cats in the house and give up the outside patrolling. Hopefully, the Coyotes will fill in that predation gap. The cats, however, were apex predators of small animals.

My feelings are that I should just appreciate animals in the wild as our population expansion pushes them out. It's cool that you could be around a coyote and see what it was up to. They are very typically shy and avoid us two-legged creatures.

Coyote mind-reading "Dammit, somebody else scaring my mice away..."

Constant visitors to our property also...along with raccoons. We can hear them "yipping" and conversing most nights.

To the OP. Fun picture. Now that's true boondocking.

Coyotes are frequent visitors to my back yard. Their behaviors are quite interesting to watch. Would love to see a mountain lion-but not in my back yard!

We used to tent camp alot back in the Arizona Days in the 60s-70s with our Jeeps pulling a utility trailer with our camping supplies in the high country north of Apache Junction and Jerome-Smiley Rock areas. Saw alot of Coyotes and maybe one or two Mountain Cats.

The Javelina (look like wild pigs) were the ones that really got our attention. They always ran in large packs and were very very brave creatures... They would run right thru the camp sites with us sitting around the camp fires haha...

Roy Ken

Wow, what a wonderful experience !

We love nature and really appreciate those once in a lifetime sightings

Thanks for sharing

Jack L