The Mountain Lion Story

                                                           The Mountain Lion Story

                                                                          1959

                       A true story about my driving while having a mountain lion sleep on my lap 

                                             Written 1/12011 Re-written 04/22/2016

                                                                   Howard Yasgar

    One summer evening, in 1959, I was parked at an outdoor restaurant and I noticed  this guy looking my car over.

     His name was Tommy and we have now been best of friends for nearly 60 years now.

     Tommy was about five foot six inches tall with light blond hair and a cherubic face, he had a short stubby mini cigar rolling around in his mouth.

     Tommy always liked to talk like he was a tough guy but it was all just an act.

     One day, a few weeks after I met him, Tommy showed up at my home in Westville, he came with a friend of his named Bobby.

     I lived on the second floor, so as they walked up the stairs in my front hallway, I saw that Tommy had a big mountain lion on a leash, I had never seen anything like that before.

     The big cat was gingerly walking up the stairs in front of Tommy.

     I thought the cat had to weigh around two hundred pounds and he was about eight feet long from head to tail.

    Now I had seen plenty of mountain lions before on television, and I knew they were capable of attacking and killing people, but this one, well he was acting like a big pussy cat.

      I asked Tommy if the lion was dangerous, he said “No”, he said, “Go ahead and pet her, her name is Brandy”.

    As they reached the top of the hallway stairs, I reached out and nervously patted the top of brandy’s head, and nothing happened.

      Actually I thought the lion liked it, her eyes closed and she started purring.

      When the lion reached our living room, she was walking in front of Tommy.

      My mother took one look and I heard her bedroom door close.                                         

      Now, I think my mom was pretty used to me and my friends doing crazy things, but I don’t think she ever expected to see a mountain lion in her house.

      I asked Tommy, where the hell did you get ever get this cat? He said, “The she belonged to a friend of his that lived in Branford Connecticut”.   

      Tommy just kept walking through my house, he was heading for my bedroom, with the mountain lion following him. Bobby and I  just followed behind them.

      I could see that the big cat was very docile and appeared to be completely disinterested in her surroundings.

      Once we all reached my bedroom, which was in the rear of the house, I could see that Brandy started sniffing the air, so I knew something was up.

      Then suddenly without warning she pounced over five feet, and onto my bed pulling Tommy right along with her as he was still holding on to her leash.

      I realized immediately what the lion wanted, it was my down pillow.

      Brandy was now on my bed in a crouched attack-like position, she had my pillow firmly clamped in

 her jaws, and her two front paws with claws extended were tightly grasping the pillows sides.

     Tommy let go of the leash, and reached over the lions head, putting his hands right into the lion’s  mouth as he attempted to pry it open to get her to release the pillow.

     I watched as the lion was now growling fiercely.

     That didn’t seem to stop Tommy, and he said to me, “Grab and pull away her paws”,

     Because I didn’t know any better, I reached over Tommy and tried to get the cat to release the pressure her two paws had on the pillow.

     I saw that her paws with the claws extended, were larger than my hands were.

     Tommy’s friend Bobby just sat in my bedroom desk chair watching us and laughing.

     I wondered, wasn’t Tommy afraid, I know I was.  

     But Tommy appeared not to be concerned at all that the lion might all of a sudden decide to bite him, or possibly bite me for that matter.

     I couldn’t help but see how hard Tommy was trying to get the lions mouth open, so I reached over and tried getting both of Brandy’s paws to release the pillow. That’s was when I could feel every muscle in the lion’s body was tightening her grip.

     In the back if my mind, I was just waiting for her to release the pillow and sink her teeth into Tommy.

     I looked as Tommy now had both his hands in the big cats mouth trying to pry it open, I could see the cats lips and saliva on his hands, Tommy’s fingers were in the cats mouth right in between her pointy teeth.

     Suddenly after a couple of minutes of us tugging on him, the cat just released its pressure on the pillow and seemed to lose interest in it.

     It was then that I turned to see my mother watching from my bedroom doorway, I could see the fear in her eyes.

     I took the torn feather pillow out of my bedroom, and the lion just curled up on my bed, laying there just snoozing away and purring as if  nothing happened.

     She just lay there for about two hours as Tommy, Bobby and I talked.

     Soon Tommy looked at my clock and he said, “It getting close to Brandy’s  feeding time, lets head down to Jimmies restaurant and I can buy her a couple of steaks, or a few hamburgers to eat”.

     Jimmies was the big outdoor restaurant where I had met Tommy.

     So now Tommy led the big lion down my front hallway stairs and out of the house onto the sidewalk.

     I just knew all my neighbors were watching.

     My 1959 Chevrolet convertible was parked across the street and the convertible top was already down.

     Bobby got in the back seat, Tommy sat in the passenger seat and I got in the driver’s side.

     After we all sat down Tommy tugged the leash and Brandy, climbed right in, on top of us.

     She calmly wiggled around until she found a comfortable position laying across Tommy’s and my laps in the front seat.

     The cat was too long for the front seat, so with her head on my lap and her right paw sticking through my steering wheel, Tommy was able to hold the cats tail up and close the cars door.

     Brandy had her rear legs comfortably folded on Tommy’s lap and with Tommy holding her tail in  the air.   
     Now the lion with its head on my lap, and her eyes closed, began purring which vibrated the entire front seat of the car.

     Every time I needed to turn a corner, I had to gently hold up the cats paw so I could turn the steering wheel without disturbing her.      

     Because we had the convertible top down, and it was quite a sight to for anyone that could see us just driving along with a mountain lion lying across our laps.

     At Jimmie's restaurant that evening, Tommy and the cat were the center of attention, and as he walked her up to the front counter, as he did everything stopped as Jimmy the owner and everyone else  leaned over the counter to look at Brandy.

     Then they started to feed her every kind of raw meat they had in the house. I saw Jimmy the owner open the fridge and take out a handful of minute steaks for the cat.

     There was no question but that cat was a real crowd pleaser, and from then on Tommy started taking Brandy everywhere we went on the weekends.

     But one weekend there was no Lion, and Tommy sadly said that Brandy had accidently choked herself on some straw in her cage.

       I have to admit, I missed that big purring mountain lion lying on our laps while we drove around New Haven. We just never thought for a moment that one bite could have ended it all.