BUTTE - A Butte man knew there was something wrong Thursday morning when he heard his dog snarling and growling outside his apartment building in a busy Butte neighborhood. When he stepped outside, he came face to face with a mountain lion.
“And all the sudden, I look right there and the mountain lion’s creeping over past the garage towards me,” said Park Street resident Wesley Taylor.
Wesley was able to get his dog, Rizza, safely inside before the mountain lion got too close and it ran away up the alley in the 1100 block of West Park Street. He normally lets his dog outside in the morning before going to work, but he knew something was wrong this particular morning.
“I just knew my dog was acting weird because she’s not aggressive, she doesn’t bark, she doesn’t growl, especially growl. She’ll get excited and bark a little bit, but never growl. So I already knew right then something was up,” said Taylor.
When he opened the back door to his apartment, his dog got between him and the cougar and Wesley was able to pull his dog safely inside.
“Now, needless to say, I’m going to be closing my door and watching her a little better now,” he said.
Butte’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks have not had any recent reports of mountain lions in Butte, but it’s not uncommon for them to wander into town. In February, a motorist filmed a mountain lion running along Homestake Pass just east of Butte.
“We get moose in town, we get mountain lions in town, we get bears in town occasionally, I mean, look what we’re surrounded by, we’re surrounded by wildlife habitat,” said Game Warden Regan Dean.
Wesley says he and his dog are doing fine after the encounter, but Rizza is a little shaken by it.
“She does seem a little more protective, a little more alert of her surroundings, too. Definitely tell she’s alert,” said Wesley.
