A P-22 statue? A star on the Walk of Fame? Tribute ideas pour in for famed mountain lion

A woman walks by a memorial of P-22, the famous cougar who died last week, in Silver Lake on Tuesday. “I would love to see reminders of him all over the city,” said Beth Pratt, a regional executive director in California for the National Wildlife Federation, who was one of P-22’s best-known advocates. “He’s a cat that people built very meaningful and unique relationships with.” Fans’ suggestions to honor P-22 have run the gamut from the pedestrian to the bizarre: flying the city’s flags at half-staff, renaming a street for him, or displaying an animatronic mountain lion eating a koala, an irreverent reference to one of the big cat’s most infamous meals. The mountain lion is in the mural, he said, “but he sort of blends into the surroundings, and as the artist put it, he’s hidden in plain sight.” P-22’s longtime fans, including Pratt, had long hoped to see the big cat receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, perhaps with a set of paw prints in the concrete outside the TCL Chinese Theater. “We owe it to P-22, and all California wildlife, to build more crossings and to connect more habitats for them.” Changes to streets within Griffith Park could also honor P-22’s memory, City Councilmember Nithya Raman said.