TUOLUMNE COUNTY (CBS SF) — A Sonora family had a close encounter with a big cat over the weekend when a mountain lion made itself comfortable inside their bathroom after getting trapped in the house Sunday.

It happened at a home in Tuolumne County near Yosemite.

The homeowners said they left the front door open and came face to face with the big cat.

The animal then tried to run and darted down a hallway into a bathroom.

“The size of his paws were terrifying when I looked at it and zoomed in on the paws it was terrifying,” said neighbor Samantha Huebner.

“Two months ago, we actually had two mountain lions on our property that ate five of our chickens,” said neighbor Sandra Gregory.

Officials with the Department of Fish and Wildlife said they couldn’t tranquilize the cat because of its size.

Instead, they closed the bathroom door, broke a window and then banged on the door to scare the lion into jumping out.

“I’ve been around for 23 years never used to see this happen, and in but in the last four years or so we’ve had about one a year where a lion actually goes into somebody’s house,” Captain Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.