WILD IN THE CITY

The puma is the 'small cat' with a big presence, as Los Angeles resident P-22 went to prove

- DAVID LINDO

THERE'S A SECRET I have to share with you. I think I was a puma ina previous life, living in the Rockies in western North America. You might laugh but I iam deadly serious. I was athletic and lived a solitary existence. And, in keeping with true puma lifestyle, I was prone to leaping from rock to rock, springing across wide, deep precipices or bounding up trees - just because I could.

Since I was a child, I have always identified with this slinky cat, though I have yet to actually see one.

A few years ago, I was in the west Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles on an afternoon walk through a well-vegetated canyon. On seeing an unknown sparrow dart into some brush I decided to go in after it, eventually getting myself deep into the tangle and quite a distance from the trail.