Mountain lion spotted in south Palo Alto Mountain lion spotted in south Palo Alto (January 14, 2005)

Sighting sends residents indoors, police roaming yards with shotguns

by Jocelyn Dong

A mountain lion sighting in Midtown Thursday morning sent police with shotguns searching residential yards on two blocks of Waverley and Kipling streets, while residents and children at nearby schools and day care centers found themselves shuttered indoors.

Patricia Kollings, a resident of the 3100 block of Waverley Street, called the police at 9:55 a.m. after spotting a mountain lion out her window. The cougar appeared to be resting in a 50-foot elm tree between her and her neighbor's yard. The animal was the size of a golden retriever and had a thick, long tail, she told police. It was draped on a branch for a few minutes, then moved down the trunk to rest on a lower branch.

Kollings, who said she formerly was a member of a mountain lion foundation, said she watched the animal for about 5-10 minutes and was initially reluctant to call 9-1-1.

"I think it's a no-win situation for police, the community and the lion. It's a sad situation. We've moved into the hills and taken their habitat. I felt torn about what to do," Kollings said. However, she thought about the children and pets in the neighborhood and picked up the phone, she said.

Last May a mountain lion that roamed into a north Palo Alto neighborhood was shot dead by police.

Palo Alto Police, Animal Services and Santa Clara County Vector Control responded, setting up a perimeter and establishing a command center behind two squad cars across from Kollings' home. An officer was also stationed inside the older woman's house.

Paul Taylor, Kollings' next door neighbor, received a call from the police at his San Jose workplace at about 10:45 a.m. They requested he return to Palo Alto so they could enter his residence and view his backyard, Taylor said.

At about 11:45 a.m., officers began searching yards with shotguns ready. Neighbors who had heard the news on the radio or saw the commotion arrived at the scene.

Adi Katz, 12, was jumping up and down at the intersection of Waverley and Loma Verde, excited by the prospect of seeing a mountain lion. She lives on Ramona Street and received an automated phone call from the police warning of the situation.

Another passerby commented: "Funny how this has become a spectator sport in Palo Alto."

One woman, however, was upset over the prospect that the mountain lion would be shot and killed.

"I'd put myself in front of the mountain lion rather than have it killed," she said.

After nearly an hour of going from home to home with shotguns drawn, the police called off the search at 12:38 p.m. Officer Dan Ryan said that there was no plan to pursue the cat, since there had been no additional sightings in three hours.

"It's like a needle in a haystack," he said.

City Naturalist Deborah Bartens called the sighting "quite credible." Bartens examined the elm and yard where the cougar had been spotted and saw paw tracks and scratch marks on the tree that were "way too big to be house cats -- way too big."

The sighting followed an earlier one in the foothills the same morning. Bartens said the Midtown sighting was "very unlikely the same cat" and that it is unclear what has been causing mountain lions to appear more often in the city this past year.

The Midtown neighborhood where the cat was spotted is located between two creeks, Matadero and Barron.

Police activated the Teleminder notification system to alert neighbors of the unfolding situation. Homes and businesses south of Oregon Expressway to Meadow, and west of Middlefield to Alma were called.

Some neighbors said they received the call too late, however. Teachers at the Mini-Infant Daycare Center at Grace Lutheran Church, located at ground zero, had received the call at 1:20 p.m.

The church secretary said she had already heard about the situation from their parishioners, who had heard about it on the news and called and e-mailed.

"The neighborhood gossip is faster than the phone calls," she said. The sighting prompted the church to cancel a neighborhood Bible study that usually meets at a home on the affected blocks that morning.

Despite the telephone calls alerting people to the mountain lion sighting, Police Officer Dan Ryan said the department had no plan to call residents letting them know the situation was over.

Senior Staff Writer Jocelyn Dong can be reached at jdong@paweekly.com.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.