MILWAUKEE A dog in Milwaukee was expected to make a full recovery after being shot in apparent mistake for a lion reported to have been prowling city streets, authorities said on Wednesday. 
 
 The white pit bull with one blue eye, whose owner has not been found, was shot in the right paw on Tuesday on the city's North Side about two miles away from the reported lion sighting, animal control officials said. 
 
 "It's ludicrous. It's not tall and not anywhere near the size of a lion," said Karen Sparapani, director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission. 
 
 "We are trying to tell people not to panic." 
 
 Police could not immediately be reached for comment on the shooting, which followed a telephone call to police on Monday from a woman who reported seeing a lion in her neighborhood. 
 
 A cell phone video clip surfaced hours later showing a blurry image of a large cat-like animal strolling about, heightening fears and speculation. 
 
 "It's not outside the realm of possibility that someone could try to raise a lion in their basement and then get overwhelmed with the care," Sparapani said. 
 
 The reports have set Milwaukee abuzz. 
 
 On its Twitter account, the Milwaukee Zoo said all its lions were accounted for. 
 
 Police said they received about two dozen telephone calls since Monday reporting lion sightings. Every call was investigated, but no such animal has been found. 
 
 "Animal experts have advised that no attempts should be made to capture the animal, as it may be a dangerous predator," the Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement. 
 
 (Editing by Victoria Cavaliere and Clarence Fernandez) ||||| The hunt is still on for a mountain lion on the loose after multiple reports that one is roaming the streets of Milwaukee. 
 
 
 
 On July 20, cellphone video was taken by a resident in the Brewers Hill neighborhood and appears to show a big, wild cat in a neighbor's backyard. 
 
 On July 28, Milwaukee Police reported receiving additional calls in the past two days from citizens who reported seeing a large, wild cat. Officers have investigated each call and have not located the animal. 
 
 She reported it to police who checked the area for several hours, but found nothing. 
 
 
 
 Two game wardens with the Department of Natural Resources also came to the home and looked at the video. The family tells CBS 58 those experts confirmed to them it was in fact a mountain lion. 
 
 
 
 "He was in the bushes and made a dart for it going west," said William Nolen, who saw the reported mountain lion. "We're close to the river so we do see deer, fox, all that type of stuff a lot of times, but not a lion though. This is just unusual." 
 
 
 
 Wildlife experts said the prospect of seeing a mountain lion in the city is rare, but is still possible. 
 
 If you see the big cat, do not approach it, but call 9-1-1. ||||| A cougar was spotted in 2009 near Spooner in northwestern Wisconsin and eventually tracked to a tree by a team of hounds. A report to Milwaukee police of a lion sighting in the city Monday has sparked questions about whether a cougar could have wandered as far south as Milwaukee. Credit: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 
 
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 Since the first report on Monday afternoon of a large animal, described as a lion, on the north side of Milwaukee, police and state wildlife officials have received a flood of calls on other possible sightings but turned up nothing. 
 
 Dianne Robinson, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, said on Wednesday that police and her agency were fielding calls. 
 
 But so far there has been no credible evidence a big cat is roaming Milwaukee streets, she said. 
 
 In a statement, Milwaukee police Lt. Mark Stanmeyer said: 
 
 "For the past three days, MPD has received calls from concerned citizens who reportedly have seen a lion. Each time a call is received, officers are sent to investigate and have found nothing. There isn't anything else to share at this point." 
 
 But the story has attracted national media attention and lighted up the world of social media. 
 
 The Milwaukee County Zoo says all its lions are accounted for. In Wisconsin, cougars — also known as mountain lions — are the biggest cats. 
 
 DNR officials have said that cougars are sometimes confused with other animals, including house cats, fishers, bobcats, dogs, red fox, coyote and wolves. 
 
 People have mistaken other animals for cougars when lighting is poor, or the subject is moving quickly or seen from a distance, according to the agency. 
 
 When it investigates potential sightings, the DNR has also turned up hoaxes — usually doctored photos — and has reported numerous examples on its website. 
 
 But the big cats — capable of roaming more than 1,000 miles — have once again become part of the Wisconsin landscape. 
 
 Last year, the DNR said it confirmed two reports of cougars in Lincoln and Marinette counties. 
 
 Robinson inspected an area around the 200 block of E. Garfield Ave. on Tuesday and did not find hair, feces or paw prints that she said would corroborate the presence of a large cat, such as a cougar. 
 
 Although she saw no evidence of a cat, Robinson said dry conditions make it difficult to find hair or paw prints. 
 
 Milwaukee police reported that they were investigating a report of a woman on Garfield Ave. who saw what she believed to be a lion, shortly after 4 p.m. on Monday. Police received a cellphone video of what appeared to be a lion-like animal about six hours after it was taken on Monday. 
 
 Milwaukee police also checked out another report on Tuesday of a lion east of Washington Park, near N. 37th St. and W. Lisbon Ave. They found nothing. 
 
 Asked about a dead cat that was found severely mauled in Milwaukee, Robinson said she was aware of it. But that did not necessarily point to a lion being involved. 
 
 "There are so many critters out there that could do that," she said, including coyotes and feral dogs. 
 
 Cougars have been found in Wisconsin since 2008. But Robinson said it is uncommon for them to be found in the middle of a city. Also, they tend to show up in the state in fall or early winter — not midsummer. 
 
 Cougars that have turned up in Wisconsin have usually been traced genetically to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where young males have broken away from established populations and began to disperse. 
 
 As they travel, especially in urbanized areas, they tend to move along river corridors. 
 
 "It's unlikely that we would see cougars move this far into the city," Robinson said. 
 
 In January 2008, a cougar leapt from a hayloft in Rock County, leaving a trail of blood and urine. It was the first confirmation of a cougar in Wisconsin since the early 1900s. 
 
 Five months later, the same cat was shot by Chicago police on the city's north side. 
 
 In 2011, scientists used DNA to prove a cougar that roamed Wisconsin two years earlier was killed by a motorist driving in Milford, Conn.
– Milwaukee residents, do not panic. That's an order from officials fielding dozens of calls since Monday, when a woman spotted what she claimed was a "lion" in her backyard on the north side of the city. A cellphone video appears to show a lion-like animal that wildlife experts reportedly said was a cougar, per CBS 58. A specialist found no evidence of a large cat, though dry conditions could make it difficult to find hair or paw prints, reports the Journal Sentinel. That hasn't calmed many. Yesterday, a white pit bull was apparently mistaken for a big cat and shot in the paw, reports Reuters; the dog should make a full recovery. "It's ludicrous. It's not tall and not anywhere near the size of a lion," says an animal control rep. "We are trying to tell people not to panic." While the Milwaukee County Zoo's lions are all in their pens, the Department of Natural Resources notes cougars do roam Wisconsin and were spotted in nearby counties last year. Still, the animals are often confused with house cats, fishers, bobcats, dogs, foxes, coyotes, and wolves. They also don't tend to stray far into cities, especially in the summer. Police say they're taking the issue seriously and investigating each possible sighting, but officers so far "have found nothing. There isn't anything else to share at this point." Meanwhile, the "Milwaukee lion" has popped up on Twitter.