Caracal King of the Flop

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

10 comments on “Caracal King of the Flop”

  1. Some people have kept these as pets, but I’m not sure that is such a good idea. Looks like a formidable little kitty. When my ship comes in, I’m gettin’ me a Mountain Lion. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Good for you. What I really don’t get are the people who drop fifty grand or thereabouts for a Savannah or some other exotic while wonderful pets are being euthanized in shelters because they are not adopted.

    2. I do truly love Mountain Lions and have for a long time. In my teens, I got to pet a young mountain lion, up in Boulder. A fellow living in the mountains had raised it, as an orphaned cub, and it was tame. That was a long time ago, and the product of a chance encounter.

      People are known to keep Mountain Lions as pets, but I would never seriously consider it, myself. They say a hand raised mountain lion will bond to one person and act more like a dog than a cat, but the feeding bill and the cleanup would be substantial.

      There’s a guy in the neighborhood who feeds the deer. It’s meant as a kindness, but it causes problems, all over the place. Deer wander in and out of his yard, casually, and with little regard for traffic. This congregation of deer has attracted mountain lions into the neighborhood, and nowadays, there are actually fewer deer, because they are avoiding the mountain lions. The deer have mostly moved a mile or two south, but some still venture towards that one person’s home, where they are fed.

      I love wildlife, and want them to prosper, but what is happening in this situation is not benefitting the deer, in the long run.

    4. I’m of two minds. Sometimes, allegedly well-intended people meddle and cause problems where none existed before. Do-gooders seek to rescue the animals, which often results in euthanizing the animal they claim to be saving.

      IMHO, so long as safety is observed, in other words adequate precautions are taken to prevent the escape of a dangerous animal, and so long as the animal is well cared for, and treated humanely, I don’t have a problem with it. There are laws governing such things and that should certainly be respected. So no, I’m not going to try to catch a mountain lion. 🙂

    6. I do think that they are one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet, and fascinating. The most amazing thing is that they can live all but invisibly in close proximity to humans. I saw a recent video about a mountain lion who lived for years in Griffith Park, near the famous Hollywood sign, and while he was occasionally seen by security cameras, he was mostly invisible, in the middle of a very populated metro area. I know that there have been mountain lions in my neighbor’s yard, within 100’ from where I’m sitting, but I’ve never seen more than their very distinctive tracks. As I write, there are deer in the same area, easily visible, but that is not the case with mountain lions; no one has reported seeing one, but we see the tracks.

      They are smart, and obviously have a sense of how to stay out of sight. They are rarely aggressive to humans, and I feel no concerns for my personal safety because of them, but it fascinates me to think that they are out there. It’s almost as good as having one for a pet.

    8. All cats are beautiful, but mountain lions are the supermodels of the feline world. Their coloration and shading go beyond anything else I’ve ever seen.

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