A Tale of Opening the Window to Let Out the Cat

While recent stories about mountain lions have dealt with fright and, in a couple of incidents, tragedy, there is an old one going around regarding a big cougar who was nothing more than a pussycat.

Kern Valley historian Bob Powers, in a recent column for the Kern Valley Sun, told of a Kernville resident, Bill Calkins, who about 60 years ago went hunting with a state trapper and, after killing a large female lion, “came home with an unusual pet.”

Two newborn lion cubs, “so small they had not yet opened their eyes,” were left motherless by the hunters.

Calkins decided he would keep one for a pet. He named it “Timothy Tickle Britches,” Tim for short, and fed it milk from a bottle.

Calkins’ mother’s house cat didn’t mind, at first. “The mother cat kept Tim in line the same way she did her own--by slapping him with her paw,” Powers wrote. “It looked pretty silly for a house cat to slap around a mountain lion four times bigger than she was. One day when the mother cat slapped Tim, he slapped back.”

The house cat left Tim alone after that. Tim grew fast and soon measured eight feet long “from the tip of his tail to the end of his nose.”

Calkins often roamed the streets of Kernville, a small rural town near Lake Isabella, with the cougar at the end of a long leash. The locals got used to that.

But one day Calkins was invited to a Lion’s Club dinner in a big city.

Said Powers: “Tim created quite a sensation when he sat at the table and ate chicken with seemingly no interest in his surroundings.

“When Bill went to check into a hotel, it was another matter altogether as the clerks had not heard about Calkins’ tame lion and wanted no part of him.

“Bill was finally able to get a room on the ground floor and left Tim in the car. After dark he went out to the car, untied the lion, and told him to ‘Stay.’ Back in the room, he raised his window and gave a whistle. Out of the car jumped Tim, and up through the window, where he spent a peaceful night.

“Bill knew it would be harder to get Tim out without being detected. He left Tim in the room with the window open and paid the bill. Then he drove the car close to the building, whistled, and into the car sprang Tim. At that moment a city policeman walked around the corner, his mouth dropping open with amazement.

“Bill asked, ‘Anything you want to do about it, son?’ With the big cat staring him in the eye, the policeman merely stated, ‘Oh, no, just go on.’

“Bill drove out of the parking lot and back to the hills.”

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A mountain lion in Arizona wasn’t so fortunate. Three men were charged for illegally “harvesting” the animal, but not before subjecting it to what some might consider torture.

Two Arizona residents and one Utah resident are accused of using dogs to tree a lion and then holding it at bay for more than 16 hours until a paying client could be guided to the area.

Hunting lions is legal in Arizona, but this is a felony.

“In this case everyone lost,” said Jeff Odom, law specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Dept. “The client lost the money spent on the guide service. And even though he possessed a legal lion permit, the lion was unlawfully taken and therefore seized by law officers.”

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The tuna watch continues, and though there are plenty of fish south of the border, most remain out of range of San Diego’s huge overnight fleet.

Some of the boats are enjoying limited success. The Prowler, out of Fisherman’s Landing, on Tuesday reported catching more than 20 bluefin and 11 yellowfin 63 miles south of Point Loma.

What few boats are in the vicinity with the Prowler--most people are waiting for things to pick up--are reporting scattered jig strikes, but nothing substantial.

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Well south of the border, off Cabo San Lucas, the situation has improved dramatically. Cold, green water has turned a beautiful blue and with it has come a fair showing of the region’s most treasured billfish--blue marlin--and a variety of other colorful creatures.

Ronnie Hoffman, an angler from Texas, had one of the better days while fishing on the Minerva II, landing what Minerva herself calls a Cabo grand slam.

“He got a blue marlin, striped marlin, sailfish and a bull dorado,” said Minerva Smith, owner of the boat and a tackle shop in town.

The blue weighed 548 pounds. “Here comes this truck through town weighted down with this big old tail sticking out,” Smith said.

North of Cabo in the Sea of Cortez, one of the largest black marlin ever caught in the region--a 960-pounder--was landed by three more anglers from Texas after a 3 1/2-hour fight.