Cat Show : Kosier Has His Pet Mountain Lion on Display and Under Control

It’s hard to say which is more interesting, Steve Kosier or his pet.

Two of the world’s most dangerous jobs are bomb disposal expert and lion tamer. Kosier, 30, is both.

But it’s the pet that gets your attention. Driving along the shore of Lake Tahoe, one may encounter a mountain lion sunning himself on the grassy bank bordering a shopping mall. That’s Satchel, Kosier’s pet. You may pet the creature or, for a fee from $3 to $10, you may have your picture taken with it.

Or, you may prefer to get outraged. That’s free.

“One lady walked right up and said, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, having an animal and making money off it,’ ” Kosier said. “About 15 minutes later the cops were there--and she also called animal control.

“I can tell who I’m going to have problems from, just by the first question out of their mouth. Once a week I put up with somebody like that--animal-rights people. They call the cops on me and say I drug him and mistreat him.

“(The police) come out and say hi. They know I’m totally legitimate and I don’t mistreat him. Even Fish and Game doesn’t stop by anymore.”

The animal does seem well cared for and, Kosier points out, it would be illegal, and therefore foolish, to drug him.

“I’ve satisfied every government agency to do this, and I’m being watched very closely,” Kosier said. “(Nevada) Fish and Game had a meeting specifically about me in Reno.”

And for those who believe Satchel would be happier running free, Kosier said, “His life expectancy is twice as long with me than it is in the wild.”

Satchel turned 3 Tuesday. He can be expected to live to 15 or 20. Besides, he was human imprinted from birth so has been a misfit for the wild all his life.

Kosier bought him at 6 weeks from a professional breeder in Iowa. After Satchel beat up Kosier’s cocker spaniel--probably just playing--Kosier had him declawed, so now he can’t climb trees and would have difficulty killing his own prey or defending himself.

But he is still a wild animal. When Kosier exhibits him, he keeps him on a short leash, which usually lies loose on his blanket. Satchel will tolerate the smallest children, as well as adults.

“He just gets (feisty) with me,” Kosier said. “When he gets mad and testy I won’t let anybody around him. You’ve got to be firm and stern with him. . . . Never mistreat him, never hit him. What I do is spray him with water. It calms him down. And when I spray him right in the face, that’s his discipline. He knows he’s being bad. He’ll crinkle up his nose.”

And although Satchel has no claws, he is not weaponless.

“He’s got all his teeth, and he can still bruise you (with his paws),” Kosier said. “If he hits you hard, it’s like being hit with a fist.”

Satchel, named for the explosive charges involved in Kosier’s other line of work, visits the vet once a year for a checkup and shots. He weighs about 170 pounds and eats processed horse meat or chicken. He gets his exercise pacing his 10-by-25-foot cage at home in Fallon, Nev. It’s the only life he has known.

“I’m cutting him down,” Kosier said. “He’s down to 3 1/2 pounds (of food) a day so he loses some weight from the winter fat he’s gained. I want to keep his muscle tone up, too. When I exhibit him I feed him twice a day--chicken or horse meat. I cut the chicken in half and give him the other half in the afternoon.”

Satchel seemed to be dozing when a big, black dog walked by on a leash about 50 yards away. Picking up the scent, Satchel opened his eyes and raised his head, his senses on full alert. He doesn’t like dogs.

Once, as Kosier held a tight leash, a visitor introduced his German shepherd to Satchel. The animals stood nose to nose, eyeball to eyeball. Finally, Satchel slapped the dog with a paw, ending the standoff.

“Most dogs don’t know what he is,” Kosier said. “They’ve never seen a cat that big. He’s a dog’s worst nightmare.”

This isn’t Garfield, but there must be certain advantages to having a mountain lion for a pet. He’ll discourage burglars without keeping the neighbors awake by barking all night. He’s a great way to meet women, as long as they like cats. You won’t have any mice in the house.

“He’s never seen a mouse,” Kosier said. “He’s seen chipmunks. He ran right over me to get to a chipmunk once.

“He’s very dependent on me . . . cries out when I pull in the driveway and he hears the car. Everybody sees him and says, ‘How do I get one?’ I say, ‘You don’t want one.’ I discourage everybody.

“Wild animals can be put in a totally different category from domestic animals. You can domesticate them, but once you get them in that routine, you try not to break the routine at all.

“You go by his body language. If it gets to the point where he won’t back down--and I’ll never back down from him--I’ll just walk away. Then 15 or 20 minutes later he’s back to normal.

“I’m getting a leopard next. Leopards are very dangerous, but I’ve had other people with cougars say theirs aren’t anything like mine. They say, ‘Yours is very gentle. You must have done a good job.’ ”

Kosier said in two years of exhibiting Satchel he hasn’t had a single incident.

“I’d be shut down right away,” he said.

Kosier has permits from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Nevada Department of Fish and Game.

“(Nevada was) very skeptical to give me a permit just to have (a mountain lion),” Kosier said.

He hopes to receive a permit from the California Department of Fish and Game to exhibit Satchel across the border.

Capt. Rodney Simon at DFG headquarters in Sacramento said: “If he meets all the criteria, it’s not a real difficult thing to get a permit from us, for a nonresident. It would be more difficult if he were a resident. Then he would have to show us he had two years of experience handling the animal, he would have to have his cage inspected annually. For nonresidents we allow a little more leeway because they come and go.”

Kosier, also a licensed diver, learned his bomb disposal trade in the Navy at Coronado. During the 1984 Presidential election he was hired by the Secret Service to check sewers near hotels where President Reagan would stay and bridges he would cross.

If his company wins the bid, he has a contract to go to Kuwait for a year to disarm land mines left behind by the Iraqis. It would pay $250,000, plus bonuses--good pay for almost any work.

“It should be,” Kosier said. “It’s no picnic over there.”

Kosier has no wife to leave behind, but he does have Satchel. He would hope to train somebody to take care of the animal and continue the routine to “keep him good with people. That’s the main thing. If you break his routine he’ll have a behavior change and that may be irreversible when I get back.”

Kosier probably won’t find any behavioral change in some passersby, especially in California.

“I hate people telling me what to do, when I go through all the proper bureaucratic stuff to do it,” he said. “This is the way I choose to make my living.”