Mountain lion spotted in Oakmont with newspaper between its teeth

Don’t blame the kitty. Thursday was a meaty news day in Sonoma County.

Just after 6 a.m. Thursday morning, Oakmont resident Ann-Marie Fuller walked out her front door and toward her driveway on Woodley Place in search of her daily Press Democrat.

It was earlier than she usually ventures out, and her 15-pound chihuahua and Italian greyhound mix, Cooper, wasn’t having any of it. He stayed in bed.

And good thing, because when Fuller made the pivot from her walkway to her driveway, she spied the mountain lion about 8 feet from her. The cat had something clamped securely in its jaws.

“I could see immediately that he had something in his mouth,” Fuller said.

She retreated back to her house. When she told her husband about the encounter later, he went to the driveway and saw what goods the thief had dropped: Thursday’s edition of The Press Democrat, still sheathed in its plastic bag.

“It was obvious that it had been in somebody’s mouth. It was wet,” she said.

Neighbor Kathy Korda posted a note on social media site Nextdoor, stating in part: “If you are missing your paper the lion took it. Please keep your cats inside and be alert with your pets.”

By midday Friday, the post had more than 100 comments, from the funny (“… and I blamed my neighbor’s kid for taking it. Sorry Travis!”) to the concerned and grateful (“Thanks for reporting …(We) walk on this path day and night with our dog.”)

The cat, collared on Nov. 20 and dubbed P-34 by the Living with Lions Project, is estimated to be 65-70 pounds and 14-18 months old, according to Dr. Quinton Martins, director of the project at Audubon Canyon Ranch.

In the wake of the viral post, Fuller was just grateful Cooper had declined to leave the warm confines of his bed that morning and avoided a big-cat encounter.

But she was also grateful for something else: The Press Democrat the mountain lion stole wasn’t hers.

“Mine was still in the driveway.”

Whew.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.