A Hard Day at Iona House

Today was a hard day. One of the worst I remember in this project.

I arrived just in time for morning prayer to discover that things were not ok with the animals. Our beloved milking goat was out of her pen (which was minor and easily remedied). But the real problem was found inside the electric fence enclosure (electric fence is both to keep the goats in and predators out as they do their important work of eating the undergrowth, especially the poison oak). Our guardian animal (Llama) was not acting herself. She always boldly runs toward people as they approach. Instead she sat in the dirt looking forlorn and distraught. Only two of the goats were visible. Usually all of them are loudly making their presence known. I knew something was wrong. I began to look around, and then I saw it: the first dead goat. After a minute more, I discovered a second dead goat. The two goats that were dead had no visible wounds. Just broken necks. A third goat was missing altogether. The fence was totally intact and operational; everything looked as it should.

I knew there was only one explanation: mountain lion (cougar).

a stock image… we haven’t seen our killer yet

I called a friend who knows about goats and predators. He agreed. It must have been a mountain lion attack. He recommended I call the El Dorado County Ag Department, who put me in touch with the county trapper (who knew there was such a role?) as well as Fish & Game. The trapper was out within an hour. Like a crime scene investigator, he poked around and quickly confirmed that it was indeed a mountain lion. He found tracks and said the crime scene was classic mountain lion. They can be savage beasts who kill just to kill (not even to eat). He was able to follow the trail where the lion dragged the missing goat and found the cat’s eating site. It was a mass grave of other animals, including our other missing goat from several weeks ago (which was, until today, an unsolved mystery). That means this brutal killer is responsible for 4 goat murders from our herd alone.

The State of California classifies Mountain Lions as a protected species, which means you can’t just trap or kill them. You must first get a “deprivation permit”, which gives us permission to “haze” the creature (chase it with dogs, or something fairly innocuous). If there’s another killing, then a different permit if sometimes granted that allows lethal action to take place (or perhaps trapping and removal to another region - though unlikely). As a property owner, you can only kill a mountain lion if it is in the act of predation against your animals.

The trapper strongly encouraged me to go out and buy a shotgun. His words were chilling. “The lion will be back.”

For immediate protection, we put the remaining herd back into the paddock with both the mule and the llama as protection (with the horse in the adjacent paddock). We also took the trapper’s recommendation and put out a battery operated FM radio playing music and then Stephen Lou helped create a scarecrow of sorts; I guess it’s a “scare-lion” - an attempt to make it appear a person is watching the herd. We’re praying against another murder tonight and feeling quite vulnerable.

The (actually) terrifying “scare-lion” made by the Lou family.

One of our next steps will be building a fenced shelter with a fenced roof that we can move around to be wherever the goats go. They will be locked in each night. We’ll need another locked shelter for the milking goats back at the paddock as well. These were complications and expenses we didn’t anticipate. But they’re solid solutions to this problem. This is a project looking for a sponsor - anyone?

To be honest, we are all pretty sad about the losses. It’s amazing how these creatures get into your heart.

I felt it appropriate to do a simple Christian burial (see the attempt at a crude wood cross, yet casting a beautiful shadow) and to pray a prayer of thanksgiving to God over each of them - for the precious creatures He entrusted to us, who have been our sweet friends, and who have quickly became an important part of the Iona House family. They will be missed.

All of this reminds us (lest we get hazy) that our world is aching and groaning for New Creation - where the lion and lamb can lie down together. Today’s newsflash: we’re not there yet.

At the big picture level: Today underscores that doing what we’re trying to do is inherently difficult; it involves substantial risk, massive effort, constant vulnerability, course corrections, and some painful losses from time to time. Today is a reminder of the difficulty of bringing this dream to fruition - one of many. Please pray with us that God will give us wisdom, provision of all kinds, and protection as we seek to carry out our mission.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.