BOULDER, Colo. -- A mountain lion stirred up some excitement near Flatiron Elementary School, where it was shot and tranquilized by wildlife officers Tuesday morning.

The big cat was first spotted at 7:30 a.m. sprawled out on a hot tub near 7th and Pleasant Streets. The homeowners called the Division of Wildlife, but by the time agents arrived, the cat had walked around and started laying underneath the trees by a neighbor's house.

Wildlife officers shot the 138-pound cat once with a tranquilizer gun but then he bolted out of the bushes and down 8th Street, past some very anxious neighbors, who scrambled on to their porches to get away.

7NEWS photojournalist Mike Flanagan stood his ground and photographed it as it ran by him to the side of a house.

At 10:30 a.m., the cat was shot with another tranquilizer dart and that finally put him out. Agents carried the cat to a cage on the back of a Colorado Division of Wildlife truck and he was taken to an Open Space park in west Boulder to be released.

"This is the first time I've seen (a mountain lion). I've never seen one before. It's exciting. They're big. It's great that they take him away. Hopefully, it will stay away. That would be a good thing," said resident Doug Pedersen.

Wildlife officers said the cat is about 2-years-old and known in the University Hill neighborhood. The same mountain lion was in the same neighborhood last week. In that incident, the mountain lion was tranquilized, tagged with a radio collar and taken several miles away. Because of that radio collar, wildlife agents were able to track the big cat and pinpoint his exact location in the neighborhood.

This time, the lion will be relocated to a more distant location, DOW officials said. However, they don't know what will happen if he returns.

Unlike bears, mountain lions do not have a two-strikes policy. Once a tagged bear is captured a second time, it is killed.

The radio collar that he wears is part of the Front Range Mountain Lion study, which allows researchers to track the movements of about 20 mountain lions in the area to determine its home range. DOW spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said that the University Hills area seems to be part of this particular lion's home range.

Flatiron Elementary School was on lockdown as DOW agents searched for the animal. It was released from lockdown when he was captured.