NAINITAL, INDIA — A newlywed couple got the fright of their lives last week when an uninvited guest joined them in their honeymoon suite in India. <br /> <br />Sumit Rathore, 31, and his wife Shivani were staying at the Shashi Hotel in the Himalayan resort town of Nainital last Sunday. They had a rude awakening in the early hours when they were roused from their slumber by the sound of shattering glass. <br /> <br />Shocked to see a leopard staring them down at the end of their bed, the couple hid under the covers and prayed. But the leopard was scared, too. <br /> <br />The big cat ran to the hotel because it had been chased by a pack of street dogs, before crashing through the couple’s window. The leopard then took shelter in the bathroom. <br /> <br />Seizing his chance, the husband barricaded the bathroom door and called for help. <br /> <br />Wildlife officials later arrived with a cage and tranquilizer gun, ready to catch the leopard — but the wily cat escaped through the bathroom window. <br /> <br />Hotel manager Lalit Singh said he had never seen anything like it. <br /> <br />“It was around 5:30 a.m. when the staff informed me about the intrusion of the big cat in our hotel. My first reaction was ‘a leopard in a hotel room?’ It must be a cat!” Singh said. <br /> <br />“As the commotion increased, I went down and what I saw was unimaginable! A leopard was trapped inside the washroom. Immediately, I shifted the guests to a safer place and informed the forest officials. <br /> <br />“I had never heard of a leopard entering a hotel room in Nainital before.”
