The sad end of P-22, the famous cougar that walked the Hollywood hills for years

And not just any mountain lion, but the most famous mountain lion in Hollywood, and possibly the world.

His name is P-22 and the March meeting left an indelible mark, Mattie recounted.

His green eyes gleamed directly at her, who stared back and took a quick video before hiding in her house, and P-22 stayed until dawn, when she quietly climbed over a fence.

“He touched my soul. He could have destroyed me, and he didn’t,” she said. “It quickly intensified my spirit animal. It went from zero to a hundred, very quickly.”

Mattie wasn’t the first to be charmed by P-22, but residents can no longer look forward to magical encounters with the mysterious beast.

On Saturday, the hearts of P-22 fans broke when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that due to his old age and a series of serious health problems, the legendary feline was put to sleep humanely. Officials called it “the most difficult but compassionate option.”

It has held the city in thrall since 2012, when it somehow managed to cross two deadly highways and set up shop in Griffith Park, a mountain in the heart of one of the world’s greatest concrete jungles.

Since then, his charisma and his curious choice of habitat in the city have made him a local folk hero. His plight, trapped on an urban island with no chance of finding a mate, also made him the face of a movement to protect endangered species.

Though she will no longer haunt the heart of Los Angeles, her decade-long reign has cemented her status as as bright a Hollywood star as any on the big screen.

Griffith Park is minuscule compared to the typical average mountain lion habitat of 150 square miles. However, like many city dwellers, P-22 was willing to sacrifice space for prime location.

Was first discovered in February 2012, when Miguel Ordeñana, a biologist who had set up camera traps in the park, was reviewing nighttime images.

“Suddenly this huge cougar butt appears on my computer screen!” Ordeñana recalled.

I couldn’t believe it at first, but a later photo confirmed that the park had an exciting new resident.

In August, P-22 got its first profile in the LA Times.

The big cat captured the imagination of the famous nature photographer Steve Winter, who installed a camera trap under the Hollywood sign. He waited over a year before P-22 entered the frame.

The photo spread in National Geographic and a star was born.

“It gave people hope, because they live in this big urban area and they have this park that they come to and it’s actually wild, with a California cougar,” Winter said. “She became a celebrity in the city of celebrities.”

A decade of P-22 breakaways followed. He scared a repairman in 2015 when he hid in a crawlspace under a Los Feliz house. He was occasionally seen on doorbell and park cameras, looking regal, even cute, as he feasted on a deer he had just slaughtered.

The city loved him so much that they forgave him when he (probably) killed a koala at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The city has declared October 22 “P-22 Day.”

But also it came to symbolize a much darker reality for California cougars.

Local prey — coyotes, raccoons, and other small animals — are laced with the rat poison that has become ubiquitous in Los Angeles.

In 2014, camera traps detected a sick-looking P-22 and officials took him in for treatment.

A mugshot of P-22 looking grizzled and bewildered quickly went viral, but the cause was no joke. He was found to be full of rat poison and consumed by mange, conditions that kill most cougars.

The species’ habitats have been choked by California highways. Although up to 6,000 mountain lions live in California, researchers believe that the population in the Santa Monica Mountains, where P-22 was likely born, could be gone in 50 years because cats have resorted to inbreeding, weakening their gene pool.

Large asphalt cutoffs also make trips to new homes life-threatening. In September, a pregnant cougar was struck to death while trying to cross a Malibu highway, which bisects a key swath of its habitat. She and all four of her unborn pups had traces of rat poison in her systems.

Ordeñana once captured video of P-22 making plaintive mating calls. They would never be answered: the freeways and urban development surrounding Griffith Park ensured that he was isolated from any potential female and would never reproduce.

His presence among the humans who loved him had a decline. At the advanced age of 12, he began to spend more time acting erratically in the urban areas around the park.

He recently killed a Chihuahua, one of Los Angeles’ least threatened but highly protected species. The last straw came after he attacked a resident who was walking his dog.

When officials cornered him in a backyard Dec. 12, P-22 was underweight, covered in scabies and with an eye injury that likely resulted from a vehicle collision, said Jeff Sikich of U.S. of National Parks, a biologist who spent more time with P-22 than anyone else.

The next day it was revealed at a press conference that it was unlikely to be returned to the wild.

On December 17, wildlife officials announced that after a thorough health evaluation that revealed kidney disease, a heart condition and other serious ailments, veterinarians recommended humane euthanasia.

“I told him how sorry I was for not making the world a safer place for him,” said Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation, who was present for P-22’s final moments.

As tragic as her end has been, her loyal fans say her legacy as a Los Angeles icon is secure.

“It survived here through thick and thin,” said Mattie, who was inspired to paint a large P-22 mural and get involved in conservation campaigns. “A lot of people can relate to him. It’s not easy, Los Angeles will bite you and spit you out,” she said, but he endured.

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