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Lynn Thomas was searching for a stray cat outside her Golden home when she stumbled upon three really large cats.
"You would think I'm one with the world," she said. "One with the kitty spirits, but no, no," Thomas laughed.
The cats were mountain lions; a mother and her two cubs. They were hiding in a den outside of Thomas' home made out of shrubs.
"It's amazing," Thomas said. "The thing is it really makes you realize we're in their place. They were all here before us."
As cute as they are, it's important to remember you have to keep your distance. When Thomas looked directly at the mother lion, the cat stared her down and eventually started stalking toward her.
"If her babies are threatened, she will attack," Thomas explained.
The reason we're hearing about more and more mountain lion sightings is simple: it has to do with food.
"As the deer migrate to lower elevations and they try and get out of the snowy areas and try to find food it's more common to see mountain lions," Jennifer Churchill with the Colorado Division of Wildlife said.
The DOW says the mother mountain lion captured near Thomas' house was part of a multi-year study.
The DOW is trying to learn more about their behavior. Experts believe there are about 1,500-3,000 mountain lions in Colorado.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)