Popcorn Park Zoo Mourning The Loss Of Lance The Cougar

The ten-year-old cougar was in bad shape he first came to Popcorn Park Zoo.

He had trouble walking and had what zoo officials thought at first were hard masses on his back legs. They weren't masses. It was bone from the many times he fractured his legs at the place he had been rescued from, according to a post on the zoo's Facebook page.

Lance wasn't alone in his stall in that terrible place. At least he had his friend Gwen, another cougar. The fractures came from Lance standing on his back legs in their stall, with his front legs on the stall wall, waiting to be fed.

They were fed a poor diet of chicken necks and backs, which had little nutritional value and led to stress fractures. They lived in that squalor until a Texas group learned of them and sent a video to Popcorn Park. They agreed to take Lance, Gwen and three other cougars, a lion and a tiger.

"Lance was a very proud cougar considering all he had endured," the post states.

He had a jagged claw mark which formed a scar on his shoulder, an injury to his front right paw which left him with only two digits. He had trouble walking. He was on pain medication, but his range of motion was limited.

But he had Gwen. The two settled in next to the barn. Slowly he relaxed, as he came to trust the staff.

"You could always hear his patented purr from yards away," the post states. "After years of living in that squalor, they could now live in their own yard, lay in the warm sun, smell the cool breezes and play in the snow. They had their own den to lounge and sleep in knowing with certainty that they would have a good meal every night."

Sadly, Gwen died late last summer.

"Lance has now joined her," the post states. "They are reunited across the Rainbow Bridge. "It was our privilege to care for them, to see them in comfort without worry or stress."

Photo credits: Lance and Gwen, Lance, courtesy of Popcorn Zoo.