[walrusse]

The picture said the woman was attacked by a mountain lion.

A young woman walked into a restaurant last week and sat close enough to get a good look at Anne Hjelle's face. A mountain lion had torn off the left side four years before, leaving it hanging by a flap of skin. Six surgeries hadn't camouflaged the scars.

"She saw me and had a deer-in-the-headlights look," said Hjelle, 35, of Mission Viejo. "She quickly got up and moved so she didn't have to look at me."

The stranger's reaction didn't hurt Hjelle's feelings.

"I've had to learn the hard way that beauty comes from within," she said.

Since being mauled by a mountain lion Jan. 8, 2004, while biking in Orange County's Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, Hjelle has been purposefully knocking down the fears borne from the jaws of a cougar. It's a determination driven by her love of the outdoors, the discipline and toughness drilled into her as a Marine, the courage gained as a competitive mountain biker and her belief that the Bible instructs her to "fear not."

A week after the attack -- her 40 bite marks and wounds held together by 200 stitches and staples -- she hiked to the spot where the cougar ambushed her, taking the lead as family and friends followed. It was her first step in making sure she wasn't going to be "a prisoner of the drama."

after surgery pics here http://www.cougarinfo.org/lionsupl/hjellnow.htm

[corpsehands]

The blood running out of her eye.

[Oswald2001]

Mountain lions are known as very enthusiastic maulers.

True artists in the Art of Mauling.

[30564U]

They just love to bite the head and neck. We're up to our eyeballs in Mountain Lions here in California...even in the Los Angeles County area. The tree huggers outlawed hunting them here years ago to increase their dwindling numbers...well it sure worked. They are beautiful animals to see in the wild...I've seen four so far and two of those were at very close (almost handshake) distance.

[LadyCPlum]

Originally Posted by 30564U ↗

They just love to bite the head and neck. We're up to our eyeballs in Mountain Lions here in California...even in the Los Angeles County area. The tree huggers outlawed hunting them here years ago to increase their dwindling numbers...well it sure worked. They are beautiful animals to see in the wild...I've seen four so far and two of those were at very close (almost handshake) distance.

Thankfully we never had to worry about that in Simi Valley....we just had to worry about the fact that our houses were supposedly built on old Indian burial grounds....

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by 30564U ↗

They just love to bite the head and neck. We're up to our eyeballs in Mountain Lions here in California...even in the Los Angeles County area. The tree huggers outlawed hunting them here years ago to increase their dwindling numbers...well it sure worked. They are beautiful animals to see in the wild...I've seen four so far and two of those were at very close (almost handshake) distance.

Quite a few in the San Gabriel Mountains.

[murofhsirgo]

She's lucky to still be kickin'

[LadyCPlum]

One of the things I've read in the case you're ever attacked by mountain lions is to do your damndest to cover your head and neck, because that's what they go for first.

[Sharon]

Poor woman, how scary for her

[vagabond]

^ I wonder if they do the hind-leg- disembowel- thumper kick my little lions do?