A lion of a tale

IDAVILLE, Ind. (WLFI) - Residents in Idaville should be on the look out after a large wild animal was spotted in the area.

This tale began with a call to the White County Sheriffs Office.

Dispatcher: "911, where's your emergency?
Caller: "It's comin' up the hill now, up out of our property, but it's a lion."
Dispatcher: "A what?"
Caller: "A lion, a large cat, but not....I'm serious."

White County Sheriffs Deputies and DNR officers were called out to County Road 175 North in Idaville to check it out. The caller said the "lion" was walking up her driveway. The description the caller gave matched more closely with the appearance of a cougar, however.

Rob Craig with Great Cats of Indiana got a call too. A few of his 30 animals are cougars, but all his are accounted for.

"In the 20 years that I've done this we've never had a cat escape," said Rob Craig.

Rob Craig said getting a call about a cat on the loose in nothing new.

"We get calls pretty frequently from all over the state from people who saw a cat or think they saw a cat or they want to know what something they saw could be," said Craig.

Craig said it was not Meira or Cheyenne, or any of his other cougars. He said a cougar could survive in the wild if it had to.

"It'd be easy for them and nobody would ever see them for their whole lives," says Craig.

So, even though there are not any pictures, there could in fact be something lurking in these woods.

Rob Craig says cougars are not native to Indiana anymore. If there is one roaming around, Craig says, chances are it was a pet that got away.