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A family in California recently had a frightening encounter in their own backyard. The homeowner's footage shows a mountain lion slowly pacing around their backyard's swimming pool.
The animal was captured on video at Valerie Strowski's property along Lake Mission Viejo in Southern California at around 1:20 A.M. on Saturday, March 19. Stowski told Mercury News that she took the video from her balcony after her husband saw it and woke her up to go take a look.
She said the mountain lion seemed to be focused on a toy fish that belonged to her children and had possibly mistaken it for prey.
It wandered around and eventually made it to the lake where it stood for about 15 minutes before leaping into the water. Strowski told Mercury News that she called the Orange County Sheriff's Department but the mountain lion had nearly reached the other side of the lake by the time they arrived.
The City of Mission Viejo confirmed the sighting later that day in a Facebook post. Director of the Mission Viejo Animal Services, Michelle Claud-Clemente, told SFGATE they are working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to identify the animal, but it has not been seen since Saturday.