Mountain Lion sighting in Mansfield Ctr

6/10/13: Last evening at dusk (just after 8:00 pm), two family members in their 20's observed a mountain lion in full view in Mansfield Ctr, CT.

As they walked out the back door, they saw a large, golden-tan mountain lion chasing a neighbor's house cat. As soon as the lion saw the two men, it turned and ran back into the woods. The men stood on the deck for a few minutes, and although they heard it in the woods, the lion did not re-appear in the clearing.

The edge of the woods is about 30 feet from the back of our home.

Two other family members had spotted a large cat on the edge of the woods about 10 days ago in the late afternoon. They could see the face, ears and tail, but did not get a clear view of the body. They had suspected then that it was a mountain lion, because of it's color, size and long tail.

Many weeks ago, in the dark, one of our family members saw a large cat figure walking along the edge of the woods, which growled at him. At the time, we were guessing that it might have been a fisher cat. Submitted by John V

Recently on two occasions I have heard a scuffle in the woods, in the dead of night. Both times it ended with a call from one animal to another in the distance. A replying call coordinated the two meeting each other, as you could hear the closer one going away and the farther one coming closer. Since I didn't see anything, I had no idea what these were, but now wonder if those were also mountain lion events.

This morning, we poked around in the woods to see what we could find, and saw fresh paw prints and dung from a large animal, and tree scratchings that would be at the correct height for a mountain lion.