California family’s dog chases mountain lion through yard in video

Her eyes weren’t lion.

A California woman couldn’t believe her eyes when she looked out her back window and saw her dog Rocco chasing a large mountain lion through her yard on Friday.

“I was having a Bible study in our rec room. My friend looked out and said, ‘Oh, your dogs are playing,’” Sandy Ali of Morada told KCRA over the weekend.

“And I said, ‘I only have one dog.’”

Ali ran outside and saw the large cat jump into a tree.

“It just, in one leap, was up in the tree so quickly,” she told the local NBC News affiliate station.

She dialed 911 and emergency personnel from multiple agencies came to her yard to try to capture and relocate the mountain lion, who remained in the tree for hours, according to the outlet.

The first responders attempted to tranquilize the wild animal but it was able to leap into a nearby field and escape, she said.

The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office said the big cat was not harmed and ran off.

The sheriff’s office warned Morada residents to be aware of the mountain lion’s presence Friday, adding that the powerful feline is not believed to be aggressive or a danger to the public.

However, the office said locals should keep their pets inside and try to limit their own time outdoors as a precaution.

Ali later discovered surveillance video footage of her Rottweiler bravely chasing after the big cat.

The Morada local said she’s never seen a mountain line in the neighborhood in all the years she lived there, and a neighbor also said its visit to the flat residential area was very surprising and unexpected, KCRA reported.

Their shock was echoed by social media users replying to the sheriff’s warning posted to X, formerly Twitter.

“Is this for real?” one man asked incredulously.

The big cat remains at large, and there have been no reported sightings since Ali’s dog took it on.

“I think Rocco proved he can take care of himself,” she said.