Wandering Mountain Lion Safely Captured in Altadena

The 70-pound cat's gaze was fixed on the two fake deer in the yard across the street.

Bovinette calmly called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, then let in his two house cats, who were scratching frantically at the backdoor of the ranch-style home on Pine Street.

At 7:15 a.m., deputies arrived at the home just south of the Angeles National Forest. Wardens from the state Department of Fish and Game showed up, too.

Then came the helicopters, five in all, including news crews and law enforcement, neighbors said.

For four hours, Edison Elementary School, about a block away, was locked down, as wardens tranquilized the mountain lion and wrapped it in a blanket. Even CNN carried live coverage of the unfolding event, showing the sedated animal resting near Bovinette's trash cans.

Residents said they hadn't seen that much excitement caused by a wild animal since 2004, when a bear cub ventured about 10 blocks from the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains to the intersection of Fair Oaks Avenue and Las Flores Drive. The young bear had noisily rummaged for snacks in the trash cans and yards of a nearby neighborhood and eventually wandered back to the forest.

Ultimately, the mountain lion also left without any problems, said Lt. Daniel Sforza of the Department of Fish and Game.

"What we wanted to happen is what did happen," Sforza said. "We were able to tranquilize the animal safely, and we're going to release it in the forest."

Sforza said the cat was about 2 years old and healthy. He said he didn't know what caused it to travel from the forest into the well-established neighborhood, but surmised that it could have been looking for food or water or searching out new territory.

He said it probably wandered down from the mountains sometime overnight and perhaps was planning to spend the day sleeping in the yucca. Usually, he said, mountain lions eat at night when their prey are awake.

"It looks like a young male," he said. "Those are the

In his 25 years living there, Bovinette said he had never seen a mountain lion in the quiet neighborhood. But he wasn't worried, he said, except about the mountain lion's welfare.