Add two more people to the list of those who have spotted a mountain lion within Lawrence’s city limits.

In fact, Marlene Penny thinks she even heard it about 4:30 a.m. today near her home on the Alvamar Golf Course.

Recent mountain lion stories

“Something woke us up,” she said. “We thought it was probably the big cat. It sounded like something between a screech and howl. There is a big animal out here.”

Penny said Tuesday that she and her daughter, Sarah, each had encounters with a mountain lion — possibly the same one — earlier this month in the Alvamar area.

Both sightings were about a mile west of where several people have reported seeing a mountain lion roaming on Kansas University’s west campus since last August. State wildlife officials say they can’t confirm that mountain lions have reintroduced themselves into the wild in Kansas. They have said that mountain lion sightings reported in Kansas could be exotic pets that were released or escaped from their owners.

Penny said she saw a mountain lion very early in the morning on Feb. 4 when she was called to her daughter’s house to babysit, while her daughter went to Lawrence Memorial Hospital to have another baby.

She saw the animal about 3 a.m. on Nicklaus Drive, just as she was turning east from Inverness Drive.

“I had to stop because there was this really big animal in front of me,” Penny said. “I stopped and it turned and looked at me. It was this huge cat face. It turned and ran across the median, heading north. It had a really long tail. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a lion.'”

Penny said her husband, Bill, who was following in his own vehicle, didn’t see it. But they went back to the area a few hours later and saw the big cat tracks in the snow. However, it was snowing and the tracks filled in later during the day.

Penny didn’t tell anyone other than family members that day, in the excitement of having a new baby in the family.

However, the next day, she decided to call the city’s animal control department. However, because it had occurred the previous day, the city didn’t send anyone out, she was told.

Penny said another daughter, Sarah Penny, who lives in Washington, D.C., advised her not to talk too much about it.

However, when Sarah came back to visit, she had her own encounter.

As Sarah Penny was driving to an early church service, about 8 a.m. Feb. 15 on Quail Creek Drive, she saw a mountain lion running for a distance on the golf course and run to the brush area by the creek.

“It is a unique experience when you see it,” Penny said.