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California is home to plenty of potentially dangerous animals you usually want to avoid getting up close and personal with. That includes the thousands of mountain lions that roam the state, and one man had an unexpected encounter when one of them decided to make its way through the front door he’d left wide open.
Experts believe California currently boasts a population of approximately 4,500 mountain lions. That isn’t necessarily a small number, but it would be a stretch to suggest the state is teeming with them when you consider it covers approximately 164,000 square miles.
The northern part of the state features the highest concentration of mountain lions, but there are also plenty to be found in the southern regions—as evidenced by some scary footage a hiker in Ojai captured earlier this year as well as another clip that was filmed by someone who had a close encounter in Montecito.
Now, we can add a new one to the tally thanks to what recently unfolded in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains just outside of Los Angeles.
A mountain lion gave a California man the scare of a lifetime after walking into his home in La Verne
You always run the risk of welcoming an intruder into your home if you decide to keep a door to the outside world open: I once decided to go that route to get some air on a hot summer night only to discover a raccoon had decided to help itself to a tour of my apartment around five minutes later.
A woman in Canada recently learned that lesson the hard way when a black bear made its way into her home via the sliding door on her deck before it was chased off by her six-pound Pomeranian, and it’s safe to say one many in California is going to think twice about giving his dog the freedom to come and go as it pleases due to what transpired over the weekend.
According to KTLA, Jeff Tenney was at his mother’s home in La Verne on Saturday afternoon and was standing in the kitchen when he spotted something moving in the dining romm before realizing it was a mountain lion.
Tenney told the outlet the big cat was equally alarmed to realize it was not alone once it saw him, saying it broke through the screen on the back door and fell into the pool while beating a hasty retreat over a fence. He subsequently reviewed the doorbell came footage, which showed the mountain lion confidently walking through the front door that was open at the time.
Tenney said he’d left the door open so his dog, Bandit, could chill in the front yard, and he was both unharmed and apparently very unbothered by the mountain lion that failed to trigger any response that may have alerted the owner of its presence.