27 Lions Make Trip From Idaho : Animals: Wildlife Waystation becomes new home to beasts after federal official seeks their rescue.

It was not how Martine Colette had envisioned spending her weekend.

She had left her Wildlife Waystation just north of Tujunga on Friday after a federal official asked her to travel to Idaho to rescue 27 lions being kept in what authorities said was a poorly maintained shelter. Descending into a network of tunnels full of bones and waste, Colette and nine other waystation workers armed with tranquilizer guns caught all the lions, ranging from playful cubs to ferocious 400-pound predators.

On Monday, the lions and the rescue party arrived at the waystation to a burst of applause from a crowd of volunteers, who watched the convoy of trucks and trailers roll down the waystation’s main road.

“The work was very dirty. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything like [it],” Colette said wearily. Today, she said, begins the “long process” of nursing the giant carnivores back to health.

The lions lived at what Colette described as a “shantytown” in southeastern Idaho called “Ligertown.” Several lions and ligers--a cross of lions and tigers--escaped from Ligertown on Wednesday night, and 18 were killed by authorities after the big cats mauled their keepers and began to wander around the area, close to a village called Lava Hot Springs.

Colette said she was called Thursday by an official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who urged her to make the trip to Idaho and bring the beasts back to her shelter, where they could be cared for while a court decides the fate of the owners of Ligertown.

Not knowing how many lions still survived in Ligertown, Colette and her staff departed for Idaho. Other waystation workers scrambled to build extra cages for the new big cats, additions to the 70 to 80 the waystation already has.

Television news broadcasts updated waystation workers and volunteers about the number of animals Colette was bringing back. Luckily, the shelter had a big surplus slab of meat in its freezer, so food was not a problem, although a Waystation official estimated that the shelter will have to buy 15% more meat to feed its new charges.

Colette “just said, ‘Be here,’ so I’m here,” said J.R. Neumann, who drives the waystation’s water truck and helps with cage construction.

Colette said it would take 48 hours of solid work to erect the new wooden dens for the lions and encircle them in heavy chain-link fencing. Until then, the rescued lions will live in the trailer cages they sat in while riding back from Idaho.

Blood samples have already been drawn from the beasts--which include five babies and three ligresses--and Colette said that inbreeding and the poor conditions of their habitat resulted in deformities and illnesses. Colette said she expected blood test results to begin to be available today, and that much of the next few days would be spent treating the animals.

To the “ooohs” and “aaahs” of the assembled workers and volunteers, Colette cradled a 7- to 10-day-old rescued lion cub, while larger lions roared and shook their cages. The baby, which Colette said had a deformed foot, looked more like a kitten.

“That’s why we’re all here,” volunteer Virginia Hadfield said as she watched Colette stroke the baby. “It makes it all worthwhile.”