pixiecrinkle | (no subject)

So, the lion's been seen a few more times now.

Now that it's out near Newark, I was reminded of one of the oddest things I ever saw there. A friend of mine got a kitten in a Newark pet store while we were in college. I went with her to pick it up, only to find a nearly full grown lion in the store! He was behind a series of steel bars, and had been castrated so he wouldn't attack. Apparently the people who owned the store took him to work with them, and took him home to their farm at night, where they were attempting to start some sort of big cat rescue.

It was not only very sad, but seemed really sketchy to me. At the same time, another friend of mine was working at The Wilds, near Zanesville, where they have an animal preserve on former strip mining land. They had giraffes, and elands and rhinos, but had at that point resisted big cats because of the security involved. It just made me wonder how this couple felt equipped to handle it when something as organized as The Wilds didn't.

They keep reporting that this lion (if it's not really a bobcat or cougar) could be a former escaped pet. Wonder if he's the pet store lion?

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Sounds like it could also be a mountain lion.

Given the credibility of some of the reports, it could be anything. At this point, the alleged sightings have occured in a 100 mile radius over a period of 4-5 months. This is the first time they've had true evidence that anything other than a coyote was in the area.

My favorite was the people who called in that they'd found prints, and they turned out to be deer prints. I don't know how you mistake hoof prints for giant paw prints. Sheesh.