Mountain lion tracks are still visible down the side of the hill near the Brown’s La Cañada Flintridge home.
“The ice plant is back now, but it was smashed down and you could see the [cougar tracks] all the way down the hill,” said Bob Brown.
He and his wife are still dealing with the loss of their dog Buddy after a horrific night last week that began with a lot of barking.
Brown had just arrived home from work July 30 when he heard barks from his 5-year-old dog Buddy, a 65-pound shepherd-terrier mix, echo from the backyard.
“Normally I would get home and the dogs would bark,” Brown said. “I would say, ‘Buddy it’s me’ and he would stop. But [that] night it didn’t happen.”
The barking continued until Brown heard something he said was difficult to describe.
“It was like a high-pitched cry, and then silence,” he said. “I charged into the house and my wife said, ‘A mountain lion just took Buddy’.”
Brown grabbed a flashlight and ran out into the backyard. His home in the 2100 block of Fairhurst Avenue butts against a wilderness hillside. Brown said he could hear noises traveling down the hillside. He shined his flashlight in the area of the commotion and could see Buddy being dragged off by the mountain lion.
“I tossed a rock at him and the cat stopped,” Brown said.
He described it as at least seven feet from nose to tail, and assumed it was an adult cougar. The big cat looked at Brown but turned back around and dragged Buddy off into the wilderness.
Buddy’s body has not been found. “But you could see where it took the dog,” he added.
Six weeks ago the Browns lost their beagle, Angie, but at the time just thought she had run off or gotten lost.
“At the time we had no idea why she was gone. Around 3:30 one morning she just vanished,” Brown said.
The couple had trained their dogs to open the door to exit and enter the house on their own. The dogs had gone out early that morning and the Browns heard Buddy barking.
“We called them into the garage and Buddy came, but Angie did not,” he said.
The couple had been searching the Internet for any sign of Angie being found. About two weeks ago they discovered a dog that matched her description at a shelter.
“We went to see if it was her,” he said. Unfortunately it was not their dog. “But we ended up adopting another dog, Katie.”
It wasn’t until the incident with Buddy that they even entertained the thought Angie could have met with the same fate. The couple now keeps a very close eye on Katie.
“The cat saw [Katie] when my wife went to the door,” Brown said. “The cat looked at Buddy, then at Katie and decided to take Buddy.”
Ashley Hermans, wildlife management specialist for the Pasadena Humane Society, said the agency receives more reports of mountain lion sightings than of incidents of attack.
“We are moving into their [wildlife] neighborhoods,” she added. “And with recent fires and drought there is a lack of water and food source.”
Hermans said residents should be aware of their surroundings and keep their yards clear of debris.
“Mountain lions are stalkers,” she said.
