The Jokes, They Just Write Themselves

Why did they have to kill it? Poor kitty.

A real cop would have just punched it the face and told it to get lost.

@Mistress Cynica: tranquilizer darts anyone? they do it on Lost all the time.

@Mistress Cynica: Cops aren’t usually equipped with tranq darts, you usually have to call in a wildlife specialist. Probably hard to reach a wildlife specialist at 3 in the morning. Just a guess.

Management gets nervous about long news excerpts, what with copyright-trolling media lawyers making the rounds the days.

@IanJ: That’s in the ellipses.

@nojo: FSM knows there are plenty of out of work ones with nothing else to do…

Tweety is safe. for now.

Chez Panisse was safe. It was probably heading down to Spengers for some grilled salmon and a big shot of Jack Daniel’s.

I regret to say that I was lollygagging in bed at 3:30 am, so I missed the action. A couple of hours later I was walking to my BART station about a mile from there. I’m glad I was spared an unwanted close encounter before my morning coffee.

Mountain lions and deer are pretty common in the Berkeley hills. It’s less common for them to come down to the flats where the traffic is heavier. Once or twice a year I’ll see deer on my morning walk to BART – skunks and possums are common. Fortunately, I’ve been spared a mountain lion.

I don’t have a lot of issues with the police response. Even if they’d had tranqs (which they don’t) they’re a bit dicey on something that large and potentially aggressive in close quarters. The least acceptable result would be a mountain lion that escaped such an encounter and lost its fear of people – a similar problem to trash dependent bears.

@Dodge: I thought it was looking for a dish of beef chow mien? Wha-HOO…

@Walking Still: I’ve seen two mountain lions and six bears (and heard one more) up in the mountains in the past 15 years or so. I’ve seen at least another half dozen sets of tracks.

One mountain lion poked his paper plate sized face through some oak brush by a small trout stream, looked at me, and then seemed to disappear into this air. I later saw some big cat tracks over my fishing buddy’s boot prints when I walked up the dirt road to look for him.

My best bear encounter was when I saw a mama bear and two cubs pass through some small Ponderosas at the edge of a meadow about a hundred yards away. The wind was blowing away from me and I was in full camo up against a tree trunk for turkey hunting so they didn’t see me. Then there was the time last fall when one grunted at me from behind some oak brush about 35 yards away.

I have started carrying 1 oz. lead slugs for my shotgun while turkey hunting now, although some say that buck shot may be a better option. In addition, I carry my .357 revolver loaded up with big fat 180 grain bullets, which are barely adequate for last ditch self-defense against Mr. Bear but totally suitable for the cougar. The most scared I’ve been in the woods was when I saw a poacher on my friend’s ranch, however.

@redmanlaw: Yep, I’d be far more scared of a poacher than any wildlife. The wildlife will usually have the common sense to know that I’m not very good prey. Humans sometimes have no common sense at all.

Ecotone. This douche had it coming.