ENGLEWOOD, Colo.— A mountain lion found under a resident's deck in Englewood Thursday evening was safely relocated the following morning after giving the Denver-area suburb family a fright.
Around 9 p.m. Thursday, wildlife officers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife tranquilized the big cat after she was spotted under a deck at a family's home.
Lily Rutledge-Ellison told KDVR her cat, Wesley, was the first to sniff out the mountain lion.
“We were walking with him and he went under the deck and came jumping out with a really bushy tail,” Rutledge-Ellison said.
Englewood is about 10 miles south of Denver.
“I was like in Englewood? No way. That’s why I really didn’t believe it was a mountain lion. I thought maybe a bobcat,” said Rutledge-Ellison.
CPW officials released her Friday morning in a better habitat in Douglas County.
The mountain lion was a 60-pound female and CPW officers estimated she was about 2 years old, CPW said. She was in good condition.
Wildlife officers were able to remove this mountain lion that was discovered by an Englewood resident lying underneath its deck Thursday evening.
— CPW NE Region (@CPW_NE) July 9, 2021
Story: https://t.co/1Qt9Pwukvb pic.twitter.com/DmXBf272yo
“The reason we chose to go hands-on with this mountain lion was because it was so deep in the heart of the city,” said Area Wildlife Manager Matt Martinez.
“We are glad this operation worked out so smoothly for that neighborhood and for the mountain lion. We’d like to thank the Englewood Police Department and Code Enforcement for assisting us in getting that lion out safely.”
CPW received a credible report of a mountain lion in Centennial by E. Mineral Avenue and S. Quebec Street on July 6, which is about 10 miles from where the cat was found. It's not clear if that was the same animal.
This story originally reported by Stephanie Butzer on TheDenverChannel.com.
