A 10-year-old girl tracked down the puma that killed her mother.
August 1907. San Juan Mountains, Colorado. Ten-year-old Hattie Mae Cole was picking berries with her 32-year-old mother, Luane, when an 82-kilogram puma attacked Luane and dragged her away in 10 seconds.
Her father was in Denver. Hattie Mae found bloodstains and footprints. She took his .32-20 caliber pistol and her mother’s shawl and followed the puma.
She tracked the cat for six months, locating its hunting grounds, water sources, and dens. Winter came in November.
She crawled into its burrow while it was out and slept there. Its scent permeated her. When it returned, she did not attack. She just lay down.
She placed the muzzle of the gun behind the animal’s ear and fired.
She dragged it eight miles (about 13 kilometers) home. She wrapped her mother’s bones in its hide and buried them. The townspeople called her “Lion Girl.” She died in 1973.
The fur coat was like a blanket to her until the end. She told a newspaper, “The fur coat carried her away, and I carried it away.”
