Well, generally it’s a bad idea to imitate another cat, as that might set off the “oh, you think this is YOUR territory???” reaction. Making lots of noise, good. Making noises like big cat (except with a friendly one), not good.
Making “friendly” cat noises at the mountain lion? I wonder how they’d react to purring sounds. It seems a bit counter-intuitive, but I believe I read they are the largest cats that purr.
I have not been really concerned until reading that people have been killed by sixty pound cats. By my instincts they seemed undersized and extremely shy, but maybe I under appreciate what I am dealing with:
http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks_ca.html#barbara
Maybe these sixty pounders pack more of a threat than I thought. I’ve just refused to believe I can be harmed by a sixty to one hundred pound cat. Actually, my attitude has been that I’ve been regretting not seeing more of them as the sightings are so rare.