Ever have a mouse in your house? Of course you have. What about a bird? Probably. How about…a mountain lion?

Yes, you read that correctly. While lions probably aren’t the first animal you think of to enter a house, it’s one that a Kayla Slaughter had to deal with coming home one night.

Let’s preface this story by telling you that Kayla and her husband, along with their two-year-old son, live on a very quiet street in a beautiful part of Colorado. The last thing they ever thought they’d come home to was a mountain lion in their living room.

While they weren’t home to witness their house guest first hand, Kayla and her family actually live with a roommate, and he was the one who found the lion. When the roommate got home, he said the lion looked him right in the eyes and licked his lips. Can you imagine? So terrifying.

While, luckily, no humans were hurt in this crazy incident, there was still a really sad occurrence. It may have looked like the lion wanted to eat the roommate, but it turns out it was Kayla’s house cat, Klondike, who the lion wanted.

Tragically, the lion ate Klondike before they could get him out, and the family was absolutely devastated over the loss. “That is hard that that’s the end she had,” Kayla said through tears.

Wildlife officers soon got to the scene and shot beanbags at the windows attempting to drive the mountain lion out of the house. Finally, after several hours, the lion left through the front door and walked back down the street into the wild.

“It was kind of amazing,” Slaughter’s neighbor Jesse Frankel said. “It was sort of looking at a zoo exhibition but you’re looking at a house.”

Our hearts go out to the Slaughter family—not only did they have to deal with their cat getting eaten by a lion unexpectedly, they couldn’t even get back into their house for hours while officers tried to get him out.

So how did the lion even get in there in the first place? Apparently the family left a window open that the lion snuck through. In hindsight, it was probably a blessing that her family was out and safe from the lion, even though it unfortunately didn’t end well for everyone in the family.

While Kayla was incredibly heartbroken over the tragic loss of her cat, she can find a silver lining in the incident, and that’s that she’s going to be extra vigilant about closing her windows and locking the doors—not only to keep mountain lions out, but robbers and burglars as well.  She has certainly learned her lesson and wants to warn other families to do the same.

To hear an interview with Kayla herself and see chilling footage of the mountain lion in her home, check out the video below.

Can you imagine if you ever walked into your home and found a mountain lion laying on your couch? What’s the strangest animal you ever found in your home?