Williams's face is grim. She has just shot a mountain lion, after it killed her Blue Heeler and then chased her cats along her front porch. Williams thus had the legal right to kill that lion. My, what a big kitty. One of the realities of mountain lions is that they are predators.
Biologists estimate that an adult mountain lion needs the equivalent of a deer a week to survive.
If deer aren't handy, they'll kill whatever is, from elk and porcupines to livestock and Blue Heelers. I remember the first time I saw a mountain lion. I was mapping plant communities in northwest Wyoming and had clambered down into a dry creek bed to investigate a shelter cave. The floor of the cave was littered with deer bones and lion tracks. Suddenly, I heard a low growl from overhead.