A man who killed a mountain lion with a shovel said the incident terrified him and his dog, which cowered under his RV as the big cat came at them — twice — late at night in a Colorado campsite.
But once it was all over, the dog — a roughly 9-year-old husky named Mr. Miller — had the final say, said his owner, Andrew Johnson.
“Once he knew it was dead, he walked up and pissed on it,” Johnson told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
Johnson is from Tennessee, but he spends his summers working as a whitewater guide in Colorado. He and Mr. Miller stay comfortably in an RV, and Johnson uses his Jeep for daily driving.
Johnson was a medic in the Army, but said he wants to renew his emergency medical certification. So he stayed in Colorado later this year to attend an EMT school in Breckenridge.
That’s why he was in an otherwise nearly empty campground on the night of Sept. 25 when the mountain lion appeared.
Johnson said it came at him and Mr. Miller, and seemed focused on the dog, so he felt he had no choice but to beat it with the shovel.
But even after taking a couple of stiff blows, the mountain lion approached a second time, Johnson said, ultimately forcing him to kill it.
“I did feel bad that I had to kill it. But I didn’t chase it down. I was just minding my own business,” he said. “Some people say, ‘Oh, that’s cool (killing a large predator with a shovel). It was actually kind of traumatic. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Started Out As Just Another Quiet Night
During the peak of the season, the campground is crowded “and almost everybody there has dogs,” Johnson said.
The site also adjoins some cattle pasture, so there’s frequently cows and calves around.
“I keep a square-nosed shovel leaning up against my RV, just to clean up whatever kind of poop is laying around,” he said.
By Sept. 25, most of the summer crowd had cleared out, so he and Mr. Miller basically had the place to themselves.
They were hanging out and relaxing that night next to the RV. They were alongside the rear portion of the vehicle back from its main side door.
A television in the front of the RV was casting some ambient light toward the front. There was also a large mirror leaned against some brush in front of the vehicle.
Johnson said the mirror is off a dresser that he bought to keep in his RV. But with the mirror attached, it’s too tall for the inside of the vehicle. So, he takes the mirror off and sets it outside when he’s camping.
It seemed like just another quiet night until Mr. Miller started whining and acting agitated.
The dog’s agitation built until, “He was like, ‘Hey, something’s here!’” Johnson said.
Then in the light from the television he saw “a shape of a shadow” pass between the front of the RV and the mirror.
A few moments later, the mountain lion appeared from around the front of the RV.
Andrew Johnson is a Tennessee resident who works during the summers as a whitewater rafting guide in Colorado. He’s best buddies with his husky, Mr. Miller. (Courtesy Andrew Johnson) 
Mr. Miller, a roughly 9-year-old husky, keeps an eye on the carcass of a mountain lion that his owner, Andrew Johnson, killed with a shovel late on Sept. 25. (Courtesy Andrew Johnson) 
Mr. Miller, a roughly 9-year-old husky, keeps an eye on the carcass of a mountain lion that his owner, Andrew Johnson, killed with a shovel late on Sept. 25. (Courtesy Andrew Johnson)
The Cat Came ‘Low And Fast’
Things unfolded quickly after that, Johnson said.
He reached for the shovel because that was what he had at hand.
After locking its attention on Johnson and Mr. Miller, the mountain lion crouched down.
Then it came straight toward them, “low and fast,” seemingly focused on Mr. Miller.
The dog scrambled around a large chest freezer Johnson keeps outside and crawled under the RV.
Johnson said he hit the mountain lion, hard, at least twice with the shovel. It initially retreated, disappearing around the front of his Jeep.
But before long, it appeared around the other side of the Jeep, again coming straight and fast.
“I just smoked it with that shovel,” Johnson said.
He struck the mountain lion at least two more times before it dropped, and then he delivered a few more blows for good measure.
During the fight, the cat was “making noises,” he said, “but not like that roar-scream you hear in all the videos of mountain lions.”
When it was over, he and Mr. Miller retreated inside the RV.
Now What?
Johnson admits he doesn’t know much about mountain lions. And although he went fishing with his dad while growing up in Tennessee, he’s never been hunting and had never killed an animal.
“I didn’t know if animals like that will play dead,” he said, adding that he didn’t want to take any chances.
After waiting it out for a while, Johnson and Mr. Miller ventured outside.
That’s when the dog did his deed on the carcass.
“It’s like he was saying, ‘This is mine now,’” Johnson said.
He wasn’t sure what to do next because as a non-hunter, he’s not familiar with Colorado wildlife regulations.
In the morning, he called a taxidermist he knows, and the taxidermist told him to immediately call Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW).
Johnson did so, and a CPW wildlife agent was soon there.
“He was really cool and easy to talk to,” Johnson said.
The agent took the mountain lion’s carcass for a necropsy, he said.
And Mr. Miller didn’t like that, he added.
“When we were loading the mountain lion into the warden’s truck, he (Mr. Miller) was like, ‘Wait, wait, what are you doing? That’s mine,’” he said.
Confident It Will Be Ruled Justified
CPW stated in a press release Wednesday that the incident is still under investigation, but Johnson said he’s confident that his killing of the mountain lion will be ruled as justified and in self-defense.
CPW also stated that it won’t be officially be listed as a mountain lion attack on a human, because Johnson wasn’t bitten or clawed.
Johnson confirmed that as near as he could tell, the mountain lion was focused on his dog, not him.
Mountain lions will kill and eat dogs when they get a chance, Wyoming legislator Chip Nieman R-Hulett, previously told Cowboy State Daily.
Mountain lions are abundant where Nieman lives, and he and his family frequently hunt them.
In 2022, mountain lions killed numerous dogs in and around a small town in Boulder County, Colorado.
Mountain Lion Had Old Injuries
Nieman also noted that if a mountain lion is injured and can’t hunt natural prey, it might become unusually bold and desperate, as the big cat in Johnson’s encounter was described.
Johnson said he noticed right away that one of the mountain lion’s front paws was damaged, and it almost looked as if “it had been stomped by a hoof.”
That’s led him to speculate that the mountain lion might have initially been trying to kill some of the calves around the campground and was stomped or kicked by an angry momma cow.
CPW noted in its statement that the mountain lion, a 95-pound female, also had old injuries on its back that might have been claw marks.
Johnson said the CPW agent recently texted him, and informed him that the mountain lion’s carcass tested negative for rabies or other diseases.
An examination revealed the big cat also had broken ribs, but Johonson said CPW didn’t clarify whether those were old injuries or possibly from him hitting it with the shovel.
Looking back, Johnson said he didn’t think he could have done anything differently, as the mountain lion seemed intent on killing Mr. Miller.
“It was all very fast, and loud, and to be honest, was the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said.
As for Mr. Miller, he was initially shaken up by the ordeal, but seems fine now, Johnson said.
“He was definitely and indoor dog for two or three days afterward,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
