Dogs Tree Nearly Blind Big Cat : Lost Cougar Caught in Chatsworth

A female mountain lion, nearly blind from cataracts and ulcers in her eyes, wandered into a Chatsworth residential neighborhood Wednesday and put up a fierce struggle before she was captured by animal regulation officers.

The officers speculated that the big cat ended up on Chatsworth Street near Variel Avenue about 11 a.m., far from the mountain habitat of cougars, after wandering along a nearby bridle path because it could not see well.

Residents called for help when they saw neighborhood dogs yapping at the 90-pound lion, which had fled up a large oak, said Tom Walsh, West Valley district director of the Los Angeles City Department of Animal Regulation.

Walsh said the mountain lion was about 20 feet off the ground when animal-regulation officer Dennis Kroeplin snared her with a leather neck strap on the end of a pole. He said the animal struggled as Kroeplin pulled her down the trunk and had almost touched the ground when she snapped the strap and ran across Chatsworth Street.

Cat Cornered

Walsh said he and Kroeplin ran after her and cornered the cat against a fence in front of a house. The men snared the lion’s neck and hind legs and forced her into a cage. “She was very unhappy about the whole thing,” Walsh said of the capture.

The mountain lion was taken to the Wildlife Waystation, a private animal refuge, where veterinarians discovered the cataracts and eye ulcers.

Martine Colette, director of the Waystation, said the animal was partly blind and would probably be kept at the refuge in Little Tujunga Canyon for treatment.