Unlikely Encounter: Rooftop Discovery Leads to Mountain Lion Sighting

Finding animal waste on your roof is unusual. Few would react by buying lottery tickets, thinking luck is on their side. A bizarre occurrence like this rarely results in a face-to-face meeting with a mountain lion. But for Bill Dabney in Pasadena, it did.

Bill discovered droppings on his guest house roof. “I looked up, and I saw poop on the roof,” Dabney told KABC-TV. “It was like four separate stools.” Such a peculiar find hinted at impending danger, rather than a misplaced item discovery often associated with numerology.

In Dabney’s case, danger was indeed lurking nearby. The roof was not the only concern. “All of a sudden I look over and [there’s a] mountain lion staring at me,” Dabney said.

This unexpected encounter implies the mountain lion might have been responsible for the droppings. It seems unlikely that finding four stools on a roof would precede an unrelated mountain lion sighting.

Fortunately, the lion wasn’t there to linger or apologize. Another lion was seen in the region days later, but no more rooftops were affected. Dabney recounted, “He was in the position mode, like he was going to spring,” prompting him to flee immediately. “Time to go!” he said. “I took off running!”

A subsequent mountain lion sighting occurred days after Dabney’s, although it remains uncertain if it was the same lion. Signs would include if the lion marked another guest house.

This unusual sequence of events highlights the unpredictable nature of wildlife encounters.