Mountain Lion caught in Newport Beach- May 2022

 In this KABC News report from yesterday, May 20th, 2022, you can see a mountain lion (aka cougar, puma), that was roaming Newport Beach, California.  I think they caught this one in the Spyglass Hill area, which is close to a big wild area, that extends down to Laguna Beach.  This cat appears to be a juvenile, maybe 2/3 grown, and 70-90 pounds, would be my guess.  

When you think about homeless people and homelessness, wild animals are usually not the first thing that comes to mind.  But wild animals encounters happen a lot while homeless, usually small mammals, like rats, squirrels, raccoons and opossums.  While I was homeless and living near the Newport Beach Bay Back, in the bushes, in 2008, I had three mountain lion encounters.  I think it was the same young cougar all three times.  The first two sitings were by the Newport Transportation center bus stop, near Fashion Island, and a small mountain lion, maybe 35-40 pounds, was sneaking by.  That's a few hundred yards from the lion caught yesterday.  

That mountain lion was far more afraid of me than I was of it, and was trying to cruise by quietly, when I caught sight of it, both times.  Two to three months later, I had another encounter where I slept, in a opening under some trees, near the old Fletcher Jones dealership on Jamboree and the back of the Back Bay.  That time the mountain lion was pretty close in size to the one you see in this video, and ran past where I was was in my sleeping bag, about 15 feet away.  I think it was the same mountain lion that I'd seen before, but I don't know for sure. Anyhow, that's one more thing that can happen while homeless that most people never think of.  

I've seen mountain lions in the wild two other times, one out near Coto de Caza in the late 90's, while working as a furniture mover.  The other one was crossing the road late one night, I think it was on Alicia Parkway, in Laguna Niguel.  I was working as a taxi driver then, in about 2005, and headed down to the former St. Regis Hotel.  Both of those were full grown mountain lions.