Backyard prowler stops by hot tub

A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd of Deadwood came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard.

“I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me,” she said. “I didn’t realize what it was until it took a leap and jumped up on the side of my hot tub. We locked eyes, and it kicked off of the hot tub and ran away. When it jumped, it flipped my robe into the hot tub.”

She summoned Deadwood police, who surmised the big cat was stalking deer in the area. “Now I know what a goldfish feels like when the cat is staring in its bowl,” Todd said.