Very sad story. I cannot imagine. Also a very real one, and good reminder at my house.
We've lost domestic goats (3 daughters in 4H) to a lion. Luckily, the girls were late for school and I interrupted it's breakfast. They'd gone down to feed after dark the evening before, tho.
That goat was a pet, so I buried it that day. I wanted to sit over the carcass as I knew the lion would return.
The next night, with goats moved into our fenced front yard with our dogs, I went out to find the cat under our trampoline about to help itself to another goat. It left the yard in a direction that is unsafe to shoot. It had come over the fence, past the swing set and playhouse and was hiding under the trampoline....F me! We had a standoff at about 12feet before it retreated. Cameras showed that it circled the burial site multiple times later that night. That was before I had a thermal scope....
It took about a month for my girls to venture very far on OUR property. I noticed them playing one day and went out to pull camera cards and subtly remind them to be aware. The lion had been there checking the empty goat pens the night before....
A couple years later, they, and my wife still don't much like getting too far from the yard lights. And that pen away from the house is now a garden. Be safe.
![Shō[t]gun](https://forumdata.rokslide.com/file/forumdata/data/avatars/m/73/73016.jpg?1702506841){kind=avatar}
