Cedar came to the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary as an ill orphan at four months old. Last month, she celebrated her eighth birthday. If you want to bring her a belated gift, she loves catnip and perfume. The zookeepers often hide catnip in various enrichment devices—including cardboard boxes and tubes—for her to find and shred; they’ll also spray perfume in different spots for her to sniff or rub against, and sometimes surprise her with something different to play with, such as a large pumpkin.

Puma concolor—commonly known as a mountain lion, panther, puma or cougar—is a large feline native to the Americas, from the Andes to the Canadian Yukon, which is the greatest range of the large wild terrestrial mammals in the Western Hemisphere. Mountain lions are carnivores and in the wild prey primarily on deer. Here at the sanctuary, they eat a variety of raw meat and sometimes eggs. 

Mountain lions love to be up high and have excellent jumping ability—vertically, they can leap 15 feet and horizontally 40 feet! If you come to visit, look up on the highest ramps, as that’s where Cedar often hangs out.

- by Guy Easterling