PLAINS, Mont. - A pet-eating mountain lion discovered by a college girl armed only with a broom was killed near Oregon Avenue in Plains.

The animal had been a phantom problem predator for quite some time, according to local residents and Barbara Steward, who came face-to-face with it late last Friday.

Barbara Steward heard the distressing cries from one of her kittens underneath the back porch as the sun was setting Friday evening. She went to investigate and encountered something both terrifying and initially incomprehensible.

"We had just gotten home and my dad decided to put some fish on the smoker and our cats were acting really weird," Steward said. "A couple of them were missing and we couldn't really put two and two together. Well, later I hear one of my baby kitties crying out for help. I thought it was just one of the older cats ganging up on it, so I walked out to the porch with a broom and I jumped off the deck and I had the broom in my hand. So, I'm going under the deck to poke at one of the bigger cats and I see something just huge."

Region One game warden Tom Chianelli said the number of calls regarding mountain lions were on the rise within the last year. He said most of the calls were reports of sightings, mostly outside of town and that it is more rare for a mountain lion to come so close as a front porch.

Steward unknowingly became part of such a rarity.

"At first I thought it was a big dog, but then I saw the long tail," Steward said. "It dropped the kitten and got down low to its belly and started coming toward me. And I just see these glowing eyes in my face, so I just drop my broom and run back into the house, screaming for my dad. I heard it coming after me. We didn't have a gun handy and I wanted to go back out there to get my kitten but I just watched it take it."

Steward's cats were not the first of the mountain lion's pet victims. Other neighborhood cats had been killed over time and Steward and her dad had recognized peculiarities throughout the summer around the area.

"We had smelled his spray quite often, it was so rank - it resembles a skunk smell - and the deer weren't coming in as close as usual," Steward said. "The cats wouldn't go near this certain area (in our yard), too. We've seen mountain lions before, but not one that was so comfortable with living right next to us."

The Stewards called Chianelli shortly after Barbara's encounter with the animal and were given permission to kill it if it came back around. They then called their friend, Jim Moellman, who had a pistol and told him about the problem mountain lion. He arrived at their residence early Saturday morning and coincidentally, so did the mountain lion.

"We have a zero tolerance policy for the type of behavior that mountain lion had," Chianelli said. "It had been hanging around for a while, killing neighborhood pets, coming up on their porch - that's a problem lion. It had to be destroyed. Not relocated. So, when they called me, I gave them permission to destroy it if it came back."

When the Stewards and Moellman saw that the phantom predator had returned to their yard, they did not hesitate. The animal began stalking their cattle, which had just been watered and as it went belly-crawling after the livestock, Moellman made the killshot. The male mountain lion measured 6-foot 8 inches and was assumed to be around 4 years old.

"After we killed it, we went out into the tall grass and the mountain lion had bedded down not 30 feet from our back porch," Steward said.

Chianelli said the state law requires people who kill a bear, lion or wolf in self-defense are required to report it within 72 hours. They must also surrender the animal body to Fish, Wildlife and Parks.