For a decade, he was perhaps L.A.'s wildest and most elusive resident. So when word spread Saturday that the mountain lion P-22 was gone, his city swelled with sadness and admiration.
A congressman called him a "beloved mascot." The biologist who helped identify him dubbed him an "iconic ambassador for wildlife." An everyday citizen tweeted that the 12-year-old bachelor with the mesmerizing eyes clearly had been "L.A.'s coolest cat."
The city's lion king had been slowed by a series of ailments and was likely hit by a car in recent weeks, a situation that landed him in increasingly precarious interactions with humans and their pets, before he was trapped Monday by wildlife officials. They euthanized him Saturday morning.
