Cougar crashes Utah family’s New Year’s party — VIDEO

A Utah family camping near Bear Lake on New Year’s Day was greeted in the morning by a 130-pound, four-legged friend.

Kyle Stringham said his wife came running down the stairs on New Year’s Day morning saying she saw a large cat run to another cabin, according to KSL.com.

“There were some big windows directly at that side of the house, so of course everyone pulls out their phones and whatever they can to take video,” Stringham said.

The fire department, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the neighbors were all called about the cougar that had retreated under their cabin.

A small smoke device was first used to get the cat from underneath the raised cabin, but it had crawled into a tight corner, Stringham said. Seven hours later, she was full tranquilized and removed from the home.

“When she finally did go down, for us to get her out of there since she crawled into such a tight spot, we ended up having to remove the boards off of their front porch and pull her through the slats, which ended up being effective,” Corrie Wallace of the DWR said. “It was a lot safer for us to do it that way and once we got her out, we got an ear tag in her and hauled her off.”

Wallace said the cougar was a healthy 120 to 130 pounds at 2 to 3 years old, KSL reports.

Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3895. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva