Baby Mountain Lion

This baby Mountain Lion is a very special and rare case and also very personal for me. At 5 months old and about 3 1/2 feet long, she was found in Sonoma, CA very sick and apparently abandoned by her mother. Rescue and rehabilitation of Mountain Lions in California is illegal but, fortunately, there are loopholes in certain cases like this one. We were planning on giving her to a Zoo if she could pass the "treatable disease" test. She didn't (shaved belly, picture 6). As I spent my precious 45 minutes with her, realizing her weakness from her incurable disease, I was able to get with in a foot of her but not initially. At first she growled and hissed at me with what was barely a whisper while she shook with fear. But after talking to her softly and constantly and slowly getting closer, she turned playful, started to purr while rubbing her head on a log and cleaned herself; hissing at my intrusive presence every so often-as if to say, "I'm watching you." Normally, talking to wild animals is far from encouraged. After I put food next to her she chowed down uncontrollably on a deer fetus... Because she cannot go to a zoo there is only one fate left for her. It breaks my heart to know that she will pass away very soon. On a personal note, its hard spending all of my time trying to save wild cats and the environment while the spirit of the mountains lies helpless, right in front of me with nothing I can do, to its oncoming fate. Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, Petaluma, CA.