Probable Cat

On Memorial day the grandkids were out kayaking on the pond in front of our house. The two of them, ages 9 and 10 came back to where the parents were all sitting on the grass talking, maybe 50 - 60  yards away.  They were all excited - one said "We just saw a big mountain lion" and the other one "No, it wasn't a mountain lion, it was a big brown bobcat with a long tail!"     Where they supposedly saw this beast was about 50 yards from all the adults and about 30 yards from where my new neighbor was digging a basement for his house with a noisy payloader, engine running, backup warning thing  beeping, etc. . They said that as they paddled by, it got up and slowly walked off. 
We wise old adults humored them and laughed about it of course, but did remark that "We are all going to look pretty stupid if a real lion wanders by tomorrow!"
The next day we went fishing and when we passed by my neighbor's place on the way back, he jumped into his truck and barreled over after us.  He was all excited and hollered "I came to warn you!"  ?? My first I thought ?  about what, our new neigbors seem like a real nice couple.!!??!!
"A mountain lion!"  He said about an hour before that he was working in his market garden directly over the fence that borders our properties, and a mountain lion jumped out of the fenceline, ran up the hill and paused to look back just before disappearing in a 7 acre thicket that we had planted for wildlife habitat about 20 years ago!   This neighbor is a very long term hunting/shooting/fishing guy who hunts about every fall in western Montana and Wyoming and presumably would know a lion if he saw it.    And he definitely had no reason to make it up, and looking at him and reading his body language IMO  he definitely wasn't faking the 'fight or flight' adrenaline overdose he seemed to be having.  Pupils dilated, hands shaking, etc
Ironically, where he saw the lion was only about 100 yards south of where the kids supposedly saw it.  We all assumed the kids had seen a deer or domestic cat or something, but they swore it was definitely a cat close to  3 feet high and 'big and brown with a long tail and a cat facel!"  It was laying down and got up and walked slowly away.
The kids were all excited after the second sighting and so they could go to bed and settle down my son and I went for a walk out there with a mini-14, a 12 gauge and a camera but didn't see anything, nor has there been anything seen since other than the ever present deer.  Grass is so heavy this year that its impossible to make oiyut tracks.     
A neighbor a mile down the road has sheep but has never lost any and a rancher 1/4 mile down the road hasn't lost any calves..   My neighbor talked about a deer carcass or two out back and rumors of a horse mauling though I haven't heard anything specific..   
My neighbor says he won't go out to his garden again without a 12 gauge, and as I type this I can see him out working there with binoculars with a Rem pump beside him! LOL  So I really think he was sincere! 
2 or 3 years ago we had a lion that was seen several times in the area, but seemed to disappear after about a year.   We've seen bobcat tracks in the snow in the yard, but never lion tracks.  You never know I guess.....