Teen describes harrowing encounter with lion

Tuesday, July 19, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

A 17-year-old Mountain Springs resident and his 2-year-old sister told other family members they confronted a mountain lion Sunday just before sunset.

Kathy Croft said her son, T.J. Croft, his little sister Rachel Croft and the family's two dogs had walked to a spring-fed pond about a mile from their home in the picturesque community of Mountain Springs, on State Route 160 near Mount Potosi.

Kathy Croft said her son told her that "he turned to show her a frog, and the mountain lion was staring at the 2-year-old."

T.J. and the dogs sprang into action, racing toward the lion, Kathy Croft said.

"He was growling right in her face," the mother said of the mountain lion. "She says, 'Big kitty, big white teeth, grrrrrrrrrr!' "

T.J. fell into the pond and bruised some ribs, requiring a trip to the emergency room of a local hospital, his mother said. He was treated and released early Monday.

Rachel was not harmed, and T.J. and the female dog, Sadie, escorted her home.

The male dog, Simon, chased the mountain lion out of sight, Kathy Croft said.

Sightings of mountain lions, also known as cougars, aren't new for Las Vegas Valley residents.

In April 2004 sightings by four residents of a mountain lion near the Las Vegas Beltway and Summerlin Parkway prompted Metro Police and state game wardens to prowl the area looking for it.

Authorities found no signs of it.

A similar sighting occurred in late summer 2004 near Eastern Avenue and Pebble Road in Green Valley. No animal was found.

Geoff Schneider, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said there had been no reports of others sighting any big cats in the Mountain Springs area, about 30 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

In January 2004 animal control authorities eunthanized a starving mountain lion cub that turned up in the yard of a Henderson home. Officials said they determined it probably had been abandoned by the mother because it was sick.

A mountain lion attack in California in early 2004 killed one person and wounded another

A woman walking between two men in 1990 was attacked by a cougar on the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but the men ran off the animal, Schneider said.

Such attacks are rare because mountain lions usually fear people, Schneider said. Nature can push them to expose themselves to people during times of drought or when the animals have a hard time finding food. Both conditions apply in the Mountain Springs area because it was ravaged by wildfire recently.

In this case, the animal was probably using the pond as a watering hole and may have had an interest in the two dogs, Schneider said.

Mountain lions are plentiful in Nevada, Schneider said. They roam the mountains, dry washes and deserts.

In case of a confrontation with a cougar, make yourself look as large as possible and stare at the animal, Schneider said.

"Put a small child on your shoulders," Schneider said. Don't try to run. Shout. Throw rocks or wave a stick.

"You want to appear as big as you can," he said.

Mountain Springs resident Sharon Burns said she had heard about the incident.

"I've never seen one," Burns said, although she has lived in Mountain Springs for two years.

The animals are so numerous, hunting season for them is year-round in Nevada.

Hunters must first obtain a general hunting license for $24, and Nevada residents are charged an additional $26 for a lion tag and out-of-state residents are charge $101 for each tag.