Colorado Mountain Lion Attack

Mountain lion
Colorado Mountain Lion

I wanted to share some amazing news with you from our state of Colorado.  Monday afternoon a man from Fort Collins was attacked by a mountain lion while running the trails in the foothills.  He survived and he ended up killing the lion…with his bare hands!  Phenomenal!  First of all, I wouldn’t go jogging in the foothills and if I did, I would definitely have my good ol’ .45 with me.  We even have mountain lions come through our neighborhood sometimes and I always carry when I take the kids to the parks and trails around here.  This story reminds me that we have an enemy that hunts us just like a lion.  It also reminds me to fight back with all my heart just like this man from Fort Collins did!

Denver Post News Article: “Colorado trail runner attacked by mountain lion choked cat to death with hands, arms, and feet”

Mountain lions generally attack from behind.  Sometimes they attack from the ground and sometimes they attack from a high point like a tree or boulder.  Most people who grow up here know that if you encounter an aggressive lion, then you put your arms up  high to make yourself look bigger and also throw rocks and scream at it.  If that doesn’t work, we are taught to fight for our lives!  Once that big cat decides to attack, the only option you have is to fight back.  If you don’t, then unless a miracle happens, you die.

It is truly amazing this guy killed the lion with his bare hands.  It was young, but they are still big and strong even at a young age.  Adults can be huge and weigh around 150 pounds.  I have encountered mountain lions three times: once at the YMCA in Estes Park, once camping near Aspen, and once I caught a glimpse of one stalking a man walking his dogs in the woods here in our neighborhood (life stories for another day).  I even saw a dead one while taking a bathroom break off the side of the road in the mountains.  The “experts” always say encounters and attacks are rare, but there are a lot of them in our mountains and people see them all the time.  People who spend time in the wilds of the Rockies know the truth.  They are beautiful and scary at the same time.

Remember, we have been given weapons and armor that God wants us to use when our enemy the devil attacks like a lion (Ephesians 6:10-18).  Prayer, praise, and God’s Word are all weapons of righteousness and our faith in Jesus is a mighty shield to defeat every attack the evil one throws at us!  It doesn’t matter if he pounces on us from behind as we are going about our day and it doesn’t matter where it happens!  Stand strong and fight!  Right there in the grocery store or at your job or wherever you are.  If you find yourself in the midst of a vicious surprise attack, then take a moment and pray right then and there!  You don’t have to do it out loud in public.  Just fight back by giving God your heart, soul, and mind and giving the battle to Him!  The Lord will fight for us by the power of the Holy Spirit and we will overcome every attack of that old prowling lion!

Just like how we live here in Colorado, be ready and stay alert!  I fully expect that we could encounter a mountain lion on the trails and in the woods in our neighborhood, so I take steps to deal with that.  I am very thankful for the weapons and training God gave me to protect myself and my family.  I am not going to let my kids get eaten by a lion!

We should always be ready and prayed up in the Spirit like a soldier ready for battle.  The fight might not come that day, but we all know our enemy is always waiting to pounce and we don’t live in fear.  We are strong and ready in the Holy Spirit of God and we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ!

The shield of faith will protect you! (Ephesians 6:16)

Fight back with God’s Word, which is your sword! (Ephesians 6:17)

Fight back with praise! (Psalm 28:7, Psalm 51:12)

Fight back with prayer! (Ephesians 6:18)

We are already victorious in Christ and we have overcome the world (John 16:33)!

“Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  To him be the power for ever and ever.  Amen.”

1 Peter 5:8-11

Grace and peace to you all!

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

Ephesians 6:10-11

P.S.

I pray that man from Fort Collins is healed of his wounds quickly and I pray he comes to know the Lord if he doesn’t already.  He had a serious brush with death and he is a blessed man to be alive!  If you ever read this sir, God bless you!  I’m glad you defeated the attack and survived!  God was with you in power that day and I want you to know, Jesus truly does love you!

 

Author: Ryan Callahan

Hello, and welcome to my site! I am an independent Christian author (One Man's Very Strange Supernatural Life), blogger, and evangelist for Jesus. My main goal with this blog is to help people come to know Jesus, help people understand the Bible, and to minister to a lost and hurting world. This site is about hope, new beginnings, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love! I'm glad you are here, God bless you! Copyright © 2024 Ryan Callahan. All rights reserved.

78 thoughts on “Colorado Mountain Lion Attack”

  1. A very good analogy, Ryan. All great reminders you share to defeat the devils attemps to harm us. We do need to be ready and stay strong in Christ, so when he pounces to strike us, we can and will take him down! Amen!

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  2. Wow, what a miraculous and frightening story! Praise God this man survived. What a powerful analogy you have shared here. It really helps capture the “awake” mindset we should always have as we walk about, for the enemy is real. Jesus is stronger, but we must be covered with His armor and pick up His weapons. Bless you!

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      2. That is totally rad! You guys rock! Colt, Sig Sauer, and Benelli are real nice choices! I would love to go shooting with you guys! I also have a few other goodies like my Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum and my Del-Ton M4. I have a Winchester SXP 12 gauge too and a scoped Marlin .30-06. My father in law gave me a beautiful Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight 20 gauge that I love shooting skeet with. My first gun was my 9mm Glock 19. I love that gun, but I prefer to carry the .45 in the high country. That’s cool you have your concealed carry. I had mine, but it lapsed due to my battle with Celiac. I’m glad it’s legal to open carry here. That is what I do in the mountains. Had a ranger check my fishing tag once and he never even mentioned my gun. He probably thought it was real smart that a guy with a wife and kids was armed while fishing in the mountains. Glad you guys roll tough up there! 🙂 God bless!

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  4. Amen! Great message! The Lord immediately reminded me of 1 Samuel 17:34-36 as I read this message…

    “But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35 I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.”

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  7. I saw the headline about the attack….great post using the mountain lion as an analogy about the threat around us. This leads me to share one of my experiences I mentioned to you. When our girls were a lot younger, we lived in house for a few years on a typical suburban cul de sac. The small neighborhood was filled with adults our age and children in the same age bracket as ours. Needless to say the kids were outside playing with each other most days and going between homes. Directly behind us was a couple with no children. The man was an alcoholic and on weekend days was out in his yard berating the kids for making so much noise. His house was next to ours with a short fence you could actually talk over. All of us with children were friends and we always watched out for the kids depending upon where they were in the cul de sac. One Saturday afternoon he yelled at the kids while I was doing yard work and used very foul language. I immediately approached him and called him out on his language, etc. He started screaming at me as he was drunk. I rounded the kids up and kept them at our house away from his.

    Fast forward a few days later and something woke me up in the middle of the night. The house was a two story and our bedroom faced their home. At first I thought the disturbance was just him stumbling in drunk or something. When I looked out I saw him in our backyard peering into our windows downstairs. As I was about ready to open our window and call him out on it, he left and went back to his own house.

    At that point in time, I prayed intensely and specifically for God to protect my family and property from evil. I was very specific (and still am to this day) for the protection to keep evil away from our property and family and asked for protection from physical violence.

    A few weeks later on another Saturday afternoon he started up again and was focused on me. I was doing yard work near the area where the fence was short. He started yelling at me and calling me many foul names. I got up and went right up to him where he was screaming at me over the fence. As I was doing that, my wife and girls were coming around the house to see what the commotion was. I told him in a very strong manner that I was not going to put up with his foul mouth in front of children and if he had a problem, deal with me and not the children. I saw his fist come up to slam it against my face (as did my wife and girls)….I felt total peace and calm as he swung his fist at my face with full force. About 6 inches from my face, his fist hit an invisible wall. He cried out in intense pain…looked at his hand…then my face and went screaming back into his house with a look of terror on his face.

    He left the children alone after that and completely shied away from all of us in the neighborhood. By chance, we moved a little after that, but I have not forgotten to continue that type of specific prayer request and thank Him for answering it. I have expanded what I call the umbrella of protection to family and friends where they live and work and where the go about each day. A couple of more examples along this line another day on how that prayer has physically protected me and my family. Have a blessed week Ryan!

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    1. Man Kirt, that is totally awesome! Thank you for sharing that! God protected you and fought for you! Maybe it was your angel’s sword that he punched or maybe it was some kind of protective shield from the Holy Spirit, but whatever happened that day God stepped in and protected you in a mighty way! That is seriously one of the coolest miracles I have ever heard of! Praise God! I am like you, I always pray protection prayers over my family and ask the Lord to deliver us from evil and crime. God bless you and your family and may the Lord deliver all of us from evil!

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    2. Thank you for sharing this awesome miracle, Kirt! I had a similar miracle happen, twice. Once it was a man who threatened to sic his big dog on me and my youngest son, because he did not like that I had parked in front of his store in a shopping center, without going in and buying something from his store. I had briefly gone into the store next door to pay on a layaway, but I had parked in front of his shop, where all the parking spaces were empty, because the parking spaces in front of the store where I had business were full.

      Moments later, when I came out of the other shop with my baby in my arms, I saw this man and his dog leaning against the driver’s side door of my van. He told me he had called a tow truck and that he wasn’t going to allow me to get into my vehicle unless I paid him $50. I said, “I don’t have $50 to give to you.” He said, “Then you will be paying more than that to the tow company!”

      I said, “I looked before I parked here, and there weren’t any signs saying that these parking spaces are for customers only.'” He said, “There ain’t gotta be no sign.” Then I said, “Look, I’m very sorry for parking in front of your store. But I’m here now, so I can drive my vehicle away right now.”

      “Oh no you can’t, because the tow truck is already on its way and you have to pay for that,” he said. “And you had better not come any closer. Otherwise, I won’t be responsible for what my dog will do to you and your baby.”

      Threatening my baby with a big, mean looking dog brought out the Mama Bear in me. I pointed my finger right at the man. “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” I said, “I am going to get in my van right now and I am going to drive it away, and neither you nor your dog can stop me. And in the name of Jesus Christ, neither you nor your dog can hurt my child or me in any way!”

      Immediately the man began to loudly curse about my use of the name of Jesus. As he cursed, I walked to another door, unlocked the door, and climbed inside. Meanwhile, the man was urging his dog to attack me, pulling and pushing his dog in my direction, but – it looked like they were hitting a glass wall! They could not come near us!

      The other time that the Lord protected me and, in this instance, all three of my children with some kind of a large, pulsating, see through shield or force field was even more dramatic! But I think that this comment is already long enough. (And if I tell you about the other one, people reading this might think that I am dreaming or making things up.)

      To God be the glory!

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  8. This is a great post, Ryan! A beautiful analogy of the Lord’s protection, indeed! Now I am inspired to share a true story with you.

    In 1973, when my first born child was about a year and a half old, we went for a walk one day, down the rural gravel road where we lived, deep in the Ozark hills of Missouri. I did not know that mountain lions lived in the woods around there at that time, but I soon found out.

    There were no houses where we walked. No people, no traffic, nothing but trees. Soon we came to an area where a small stream ran parallel to the road, about thirty feet down through the trees. I thought my son might enjoy seeing the stream, so I led him down the gently sloping hill to the narrow creek.

    My little boy was happily throwing pebbles into the water when I looked up and there, standing as still and silent as a statue on the other side of the stream, stood a mountain lion. The big cat was only a few feet away, almost close enough for me to reach out and touch.

    As I locked eyes with the animal, everything inside me froze. I had no idea what to do. Nothing that I had learned, up to that point in my life, had taught me how to react when you come face to face with a mountain lion.

    Immediately, a powerful thought came into my mind: “Do Not Feel Fear. Animals can sense fear.” With steely determination, I forced myself to stay calm inside. My heart felt as cold and hard as stone. There was no fear here!

    The thought about fear was instantly followed by these thoughts: “Keep staring into the cat’s eyes. Don’t look away. Don’t make any sudden moves. Slowly, while staring into the cougar’s eyes, bend down and pick up your son. Now slowly lift your child up over your head and set him on your shoulders. Slowly, back away from the cat. Keep staring into the cat’s eyes. Back away a little further. A little further. Don’t break eye contact. Don’t make any sudden moves. Now turn around, very slowly. Slowly, walk back to the road. Feel no fear. Don’t run. Don’t make any sudden moves. Slowly… slowly… slowly….”

    I held my son up high on my shoulders and slowly put one foot in front of the other foot, all the way back up the hill to the road, then all the way back to the trailer where we lived, a distance of about half a mile. Step by slow step, I walked across our wide front yard, I slowly climbed the three steps to our porch, I slowly opened the door and walked inside the trailer, dipping down to keep from hitting my son’s head on the door frame. I closed the door behind me, set my child down on the floor — and then a massive adrenaline rush finally hit me. I sank to my knees on the floor, crying and shaking, as the fear that I had not allowed myself to feel, flooded all through me.

    A couple of days later, a farmer who lived a few miles away from us went to check on a herd of cattle that he kept in a field down below where we lived, on the other side of the stream. He found a freshly slaughtered calf lying beside the stream, with big cat tracks in the mud all around the half-eaten animal.

    Did God put those thoughts inside my head, telling me exactly what I needed to do to save my little boy and myself from a hungry mountain lion? My natural impulse would be to scream, grab my child, hold him close to my chest, and run away in fear. But if I had done that, we would have been dead meat, instead of that calf.

    I was not walking with the Lord back then. But God knew I would be His one day, and He saved us!

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    1. The Lord definitely spoke to you that day! What an awesome testimony of the Lord’s protection and love! Yes, you never want to run. That is why that guy got attacked. Joggers and bikers always get attacked because they spark the lion’s instinct to chase and kill because they are on the move quickly. Praise God He saved you and your son! You did exactly the right thing by making yourself look taller with your son on your shoulders and you didn’t turn your back to the cat. Those were two crucial steps! Thank you for sharing that–so cool! God bless!

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      1. I have goose bumps, Ryan. Because I did not know any of that, about making yourself look taller, and not running, and not turning your back on a mountain lion, until about two years ago, when a picture I saw online of a mountain lion made me do a google search for what you are supposed to do if you encounter a big cat. I was shocked to read that everything my “thoughts” told me to do, was exactly what you are supposed to do! I was 20 years old and I did not have a clue!

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  9. Just an awesome account of how Linda Lee and her son were protected that day! God was with her..just amazing how He speaks to us in our thoughts, and kept her so calm. And, Kirt’s testimony of what happened with his neighbor! Awesome. God is so good!!

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      1. We were caught up in the middle of the heat wave (which made going out inconvenient – never mind that I’ve got TAFE), but we’re going fine.
        We may not have mountain lions roaming around, but some friends were telling us the other week about a sighting of a strange creature in a park just outside of town. It occurred at night. Some people parked their car & had their headlights shining on the hill. They got out and walked in the OPPOSITE direction, i.e. where there were no lights. They soon spotted a pair of glowing eyes watching them – slit eyes, like a cat or reptile (recall that we have no big cats, or any reptiles larger than a crocodile – which this certainly WASN’T; also, recall that the only light was shining the OTHER way, so the eyes couldn’t have been reflecting the car’s light; they were glowing of their own accord). I think it made a noise, but I can’t remember what our friends said it sounded like. It was large, whatever it was. The people turned around and ran back to the car – hearing the Thing chasing them. They got back to the car alright – and by the time they did, the Thing had disappeared.
        What it was, we don’t know. There HAVE been sightings of big cats in Australia – even though we officially don’t have any – and at least some of them seem to have supernatural qualities, which makes me thing they’re Nephilim.
        And then there’ve been sightings of Bigfoot in our country (and they’re of course Nephilim) (called Yowie)..
        And then there’s the Bunyip – a creature that seems to have been a duck-billed dinosaur. It’s roar sounded like a screaming woman.
        So, yeah. Who knows what it was – other than it was definitely cryptzoological.
        (We also have a Burrunjor, which is a T-Rex; although that lives in northern Australia.)
        Regardless, it’s the first time we’ve heard of that officially nonexistant creatures have been sighted around my town. So, it’s very slightly concerning, although I’m not about to get fearful or anything.
        (P.S. If it was a Bunyip, that would be significant as there haven’t been any reported sightings of it in over a century, leading some to believe they’re extinct.)

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      2. Glad you guys are okay. I remember that cool post you did about the Burrunjor. I definitely believe there are undiscovered animals roaming about. I think Bigfoot is real too. There have been sightings around where we fish in the mountains. I haven’t talked about this much because my supernatural experiences are crazy enough, but my wife and I had a terrifying encounter with something unknown while camping there.

        The whole campsite was full and at least 50 other people were camping at sites next to us. Maybe one of these days I will do a post about it. We were in our tent around 11 p.m. going to sleep for the night when something in those woods screamed/yelled/roared/whooped/howled (don’t know how else to explain it) at us and it was loud and primal! The whole campsite went quiet. We both were breathing shallow and the hair on our bodies was standing up. It was so freaky man! Our instincts kicked in and I felt like our lives were in danger!

        It came from up the mountain above the campsite just across the road. We didn’t know what it was and we had never heard anything like it. It was not any known animal in Colorado that’s for sure. We didn’t know what to think. A few years went by and we were watching the Bigfoot show “Finding Bigfoot” here. It was pretty new back then. It was an episode where they were going to blast out Bigfoot calls from a big speaker in some heavily wooded place like Oregon or Washington. When the scene came and they played the sound, my wife and I both turned and looked at each other with wide eyes because we both knew that was the exact sound we heard camping that day! It was crazy! We both started laughing and freaking out about it. We had never researched Bigfoot or watched any shows about it, so we had no idea. We had never heard that awful blood curdling scream before in our lives and here they were playing it on their show! It all out confirmed it for us.

        Like I said, we don’t talk about it much because I already talk about the angel and demon experiences and what happened to me when I stopped breathing. People will really think I’m nuts if I start talking about Bigfoot too. What we heard that night was intensely scary. It was so primal and loud like a lion’s roar, but more like a huge screaming monkey or something. I think it is some kind of undiscovered Great Ape. I hope we never hear that again and I sure hope I never see whatever it was that made that noise!

        People in that area have seen a creature that they describe as Bigfoot. It is in the Pike National Forest area. I did a post called “Fall Time In The Rockies” where I took photos down there back in September 2018. There was a sighting of a big grey one standing in the woods at the edge of a golf course near there just watching some dude. There are still many things on this earth that we don’t fully understand and it would be arrogant to think we have it all figured out, that’s all I know. My life has been so weird and anything is possible! God bless brother!

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      3. Yes, I’ve heard about Bigfoot screams. Have you looked into the Missing 4/11? They’re people who disappeared under VERY mysterious circumstances (think “really weird, sometimes not physically possible”) in national parks. And the “clusters” of strange vanishings match clusters of Bigfoot sightings – literally. Where there’s more bigfoot sightings, there’s more unexplained disappearances. (My family & I have looked into Bigfoot and other strange creatures a LOT over the years. We’re firm believers in cryptzoology, although we don’t use that term.)
        The friends who told us about the experience in the park just outside of town also – years ago – described an incident with some friends of theirs when camping out in the bush. They were all sitting around the campfire… when a FAUN stepped up to the fire and warmed his hands, saying, “Chilly tonight, isn’t it?” And then turned and disappeared back into the bush.

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      4. I’ve never heard of the 4/11. That is an amazing story about the faun. I must admit, it is quite funny too! I imagined Mr. Thomas with his umbrella. Not sure what to think of that one, but it’s one of the best stories of mysterious events I’ve ever heard!

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      5. It’s Mr Tumnus, not Thomas 🙂
        (Yes, we thought it kinda funny – especially since the people were thinking “I’m not saying anything”. Everyone stayed silent during the encounter, apparently.)

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      7. One woman actually did talk to a family of bigfoots she became friends with (and visits every year). They communicated with her telepathically, and claimed to be aliens who crash landed to earth thousands of years ago.

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      9. VERY. From the modern-day accounts of fauns I’ve read, those persons I mentioned here in Aus were quite lucky to get a nice one (same with the woman and bigfoot). They’re very… vicious creatures that rape, kill & eat persons when they can. (Most, anyway.)
        DNA tests on Bigfoot hair have proven it to be an artificial hybrid. One test I read about found it to be a hybrid between apes and something entirely unknown whose DNA doesn’t match any earthly creature (fallen angels?), while another found it to be a three-way hybrid – human, ape, and the (presumably same) unknown.

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  17. Omg. I’ve Never Experienced Anything Like That. I’m In Georgia Most I’ve Seen Are Deers In The Yard In The Mornings. Squirrels, Birds, Chipmunks, A Few Buzzards In My Neighbors Barn. But I’ve Seen Animals At The City Zoo. An Amazing Story.

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    1. Thanks! Those are much nicer animals to deal with for sure! Glad you guys don’t have them down in Georgia. They have them down in Florida though. I wonder if anyone in southern Georgia has seen one. I’m sure they cross the border sometimes. Supposedly people have seen wolves here in CO too. They come over from Yellowstone. I hope I never encounter a pack of wolves! Mountain lions I’m used to, but wolves…no way! 🙂 God bless!

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      1. I have friends in Florida. Never heard anything about it. I will ask them. But doesn’t mean their not there. Lol. Hopefully you never have to experience them. Thats Scary. Enjoy your night.

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    1. Thanks! There are more lions than people think where you and I live. There are sightings here, in the Pinery area, and Castle Rock a lot. One guy in the Pinery had one on top of his garage! People get pictures of them all the time with their security and game cameras. Be safe out there! P.S. It is crazy cold today! Brrrr! God bless!

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      1. We got some backyard cameras last year because it’s so interesting around here! We saw a lion once pass thru while my son was mowing the lawn… they are like ghosts. Today it’s been elk, which is nice. 🙂

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      2. Whoa! That’s scary! I’m glad your son was not attacked! I’m sure they don’t like the sound of the mower. That’s cool you see elk over there! We don’t have elk over here, but we have plenty of deer and coyotes. Sometimes black bears come through too, but it’s rare. Maybe start packing heat while mowing the lawn! 🙂

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  20. Ryan, thank you so much. I hike and would love to visit your state sometime. Your transition from mountain lions to our number one enemy is excellent brother. We need to be alert at all times, not just at church or just when we are in prayer alone. It is a discipline to stay alert. I fall short daily but keep going, seeking the power of Jesus within me.

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