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Meow! Officer expects house cat, gets cougar

Decides to wait for game warden with tranquilizer to handle problem

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updated 3:24 p.m. ET Sept. 30, 2008

CASPER, Wyo. - Police officer Mike Ableman didn't think much of a call to shoo off a bothersome "kitty cat" at a Casper home. But upon arriving at the scene, he ran for cover after seeing a male mountain lion weighing 80 to 90 pounds.

Beverly Hood said she was inside her house when she first saw the cat lying on her porch Monday. Hood said the lion hissed at her, but she wasn't scared.

"I just thought, 'Whoops, I'm not going out there,'" she told the Casper Star-Tribune.

Hood called 911, animal control and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and reported that she had a bothersome "big cat." A dispatcher told Officer Ableman that it was a house cat.

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When Ableman saw it was a cougar, he ran back inside the house and waited for Game and Fish officers to arrive with a tranquilizer gun.

A game warden tranquilized the mountain lion and the animal was relocated.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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