A Bobcat in the yard!

awatkins

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Wow, this was so cool...

I was sitting in my customary work area, in front of a huge window, when a flash of movement caught my eye. I looked up to see a big bobcat sitting in my yard!

He/she was gorgeous--a tawny colored undercoat covered with brown spots and markings, and when he turned his head, I got a good look at the backs of the ears. They were black with one huge white spot on each. And its face! There was such an intelligence in that face. Wow. The body looked very muscular and powerful, and when it turned I got a good look at the short tail. What a beautiful, impressive, awesome animal!

The thing was very calm, just sitting there, looking around. I suspect it was thinking of feeding on some of the young rabbits that hang out in the side yard. It stayed for a long while and when it finally decided to leave, it calmly turned and headed for the woods. Leisurely, like it owned the place. lol.

We have deer in the yard quite often, rabbits all the time, chipmunks, armadillos, foxes, etc. on a regular basis. But this was the first time one of these creatures has ever ventured out in broad daylight to just visit! And of course, I grabbed the binoculars instead of the camera. Grrrr!!!!

Sorry to ramble on so, but this was such a wonderful experience! Oh, wow. Thanks for listening. :)
 

Mihoshi

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Oh wow. I just saw two Bobcats at a cat show this weekend (part of a fund raiser, not in the show).
 

DanaS

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Wow-I'd love to see one up close (well not too close). We have one or maybe more that roam during the summer months-they give off the strangest noise, but we have yet to catch a peek. Last summer we found it decided to "mark" it's turf outside the dog yard. I probably would have been like you and grabbed the binoculars before the camera. Thanks for sharing! Dana
 

Gehanna

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I'm jealous! ... ok not really. That's just my odd way of saying I can imagine how wonderful the experience of that was. :)
 

Celeste

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Whoa! How very cool! I am jealous! Michigan is so boring as far as wildlife is... The most we see, if we're lucky, is a deer. Head north and you might spot a bear. But a Bobcat! Wow! I bet it was awesome! Woulda' loved to have seen it!
 

Unique

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Wrong Part of Town...

Celeste,

You just live in the wrong part of Michigan to see wildlife (of the 4 legged variety, anyway).
 

SRHowen

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I have a bobcat in the house.

At 5 months old:

b57978.jpg



Full grown, growing her coat out--she gets too hot here in summer so we have her clipped down. also most females don't have the great big ear tuffts, but this is a good tail shot and a good shot of that tawny underfur. That's a real camel saddle behind her to get an idea of how big she is.

b6726792.jpg


The bob in your yard might have been hungry, you can put out dry kibble for them if you want, but just don't approach him or her--LOL
 

awatkins

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Hi, everybody! Wow, thanks so much for all your responses. :)

Shawn, where did you get your bobcat? How old is she now? She's beautiful!

The closest I've come to touching a bobcat was when a neighhood guy found two little ones in his barn. Something happened to their mother, hit by a car or something, I think the man said. They were so pretty, but you got a real good idea that they were Cats with a Capital C, even though they were kittens!

And don't worry about me trying to approach a totally wild one. The one that visited my yard was waaay too much cat for me to get near! I was just thrilled to have one drop by. lol.
 

Celeste

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Unique said:
Celeste,

You just live in the wrong part of Michigan to see wildlife (of the 4 legged variety, anyway).

Yeah, true. The Detroit area.. we see dogs, stray cats, sometimes a skunk. Lol...:mad:
 

SRHowen

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Her name is ButterCup--LOL 25 pounds or so and is now 4 years old. Mom was hit by a car and we have had her since just before her eyes opened. She's really a German Forest cat--the equiv of the American Bobcat in Germany. We have two, Tinker, the smaller of the two is a little spit fire--Cat with a cap C mixed with Dog with a cap D. LOL

Butter is the calmer one, but she is very terratorial <sp>. She growls when the door bell rings and runs to see who is at the door. Then growls if it's someone she doesn't know or like--she hates the mailman, but likes the UPS guy. Think it's because the UPS guy brings her zoo max--LOL (zoo max, the dry stuff they mix with ground meat for big and small captive non-domestics)

She likes to shower with you and plays fetch--and also likes to share your "dindin" (right off your plate)and will offer to share hers--though while she likes my chicken, I don't much care for zoo max mixed with ground turkey--plopped on my plate from her mouth. They need a very high protien diet.

We also have a Margay or Ocelot mix. The vet isn't sure which. We call her the Ocelot, she seems to be more that type. She came to us via our vet who knows we do non-domestic cat rescue--she'd been abused by her owners in the first 14 weeks of her life and is still very skittish and at times dangerous even after living with us for 2 years now. She looks like an oddly marked tiger cat--very dark markings with paw print type markings on her body like you took a cat's paw and dipped it in ink and marked her with it. She has white markings on her face like a cougar. And a temperment from hell.

Most others we get come and go once they can go back to the wild or once we find a sanctuary for them. But Butter, Tinker and Peri are members of the family.

What did the guy do with the poor kittens?

Trouble with hand raising them is they are not domestic cats no matter how much they can act like it. If people realize that then they can be great cats--if they expect them to act like fluffy, then they are not going to work out--they rip stuff up, they chew stuff up, they mark their stuff (inlcuding you at times)--they play hard and nip when they are happy. My daughter used to tease Butter with her butt length hair--kept telling her to stop it.

Now she can't lay on the floor to watch TV--Butter leaps on her head and starts biting her hair. She wants part of your chicken or steak--hey she just bites in. push her away and she growls--so we share. LOL

Other times--she likes my desk chair. So she brings me trades, a shoe, a sock, a ball, a play mouse, real water bugs--and piles them up at my feet, meowing and looking at me with each new offering. I get up and in the chair she jumps--then she growls if I try to move her. I have two chairs for that reason--LOL

The nice one -- the one Butter likes, and the old one--no arms on that one.

They keep life interesting to say the least.

Shawn
 

awatkins

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Joanne, it is wonderful indeed. It feeds my soul to live here and get to see all the varieties of wildlife that drop by. We actually did manage to get pics of some deer in the yard once, but how I would have loved to get a picture of that cat! I'll have to start keeping the camera beside the binoculars. :)

Have you gotten any good photos of the animals in your neck of the woods? Ever have any bear in your area? Now that would be scary. hehe.
 

awatkins

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Shawn, what an interesting post! I learned a lot. Thanks!

What did the guy do with the poor kittens?

Trouble with hand raising them is they are not domestic cats no matter how much they can act like it. If people realize that then they can be great cats--if they expect them to act like fluffy, then they are not going to work out--they rip stuff up, they chew stuff up, they mark their stuff (inlcuding you at times)--they play hard and nip when they are happy. My daughter used to tease Butter with her butt length hair--kept telling her to stop it.

He figured out real quick that they weren't going to be little sweet fluffy kitties. lol. After they clawed his arms to pieces and chewed him up a bit (even though they were just playing, they were strong!), he tossed out the idea of raising them to be pets. I believe he kept them until he found a wildlife rehabilitator to take them on. Someone like you, I suppose. :)

I have great deal of respect for anyone who takes on a wild one and works to keep the animal's needs/requirements in mind until they can be returned to the wild--or are willing to go the extra mile and do whatever else that may be necessary. Thank you. :)
 

jdkiggins

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awatkins said:
Joanne, it is wonderful indeed. It feeds my soul to live here and get to see all the varieties of wildlife that drop by. We actually did manage to get pics of some deer in the yard once, but how I would have loved to get a picture of that cat! I'll have to start keeping the camera beside the binoculars. :)

Have you gotten any good photos of the animals in your neck of the woods? Ever have any bear in your area? Now that would be scary. hehe.

We have a buck, two doe and two fawn running around the yard. Also numerous turkeys, squirrels, big fat groundhogs and the usual raccoons, and opossum. Oh yes, an occasional box turtle and black snakes too.

A few years ago there was a black bear in the woods. It wandered here from the mountains. The game commission came and trapped it and took it back to the Allegheny Mountains where it would be safe. :)

We also had a monkey that escaped from the Pittsburgh Zoo. I never saw the monkey, but others manages to snap a shot and get a story in the local paper.

I did manage to get a few pictures in the past few months of the turkeys and the box turtle. Here's the link to the pics in my blog.

If I get anything new, I'll let you know. Oh wait, I do have something new. In fact, I was considering writing a tiny humor piece about it. I captured a picture the other day of my mom's cat sitting in the bird bath. :ROFL: Not as great as a bob cat, but the irony of a cat in a bird bath seemed like a great pic to send to some animal magazine just for the humor. :D
 
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awatkins

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What gorgeous pictures, Joanne! Thank you for the link. :)

And yes, the cat in the birdbath is priceless. LOL. I think that would make a great little story.

Yikes, I have to run for now, everybody. I've enjoyed the converstaions. But it's starting to lightning so I'll be back later. Have a good afternoon!
 

SRHowen

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Cats Magazine, Women's day or even NG Kids mag--they have a write a caption to this pic page--

That would be funny to see---
 

KTC

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My aunt always has this moose come up to her back porch and she feeds it by hand. (Or I should say used to...I think it was a couple years ago. I don't know if he's still around or not?) Last night when I was taking my dog for her last nightly stroll I stepped out of the house and we came face to face with a skunk in the driveway. Franny just stood there looking at the skunk and the skunk just stood there looking at Franny...then it sauntered away like it hadn't a care in the world. We usually come out of the house to meet face to face with rabbits...and those, Franny usually rips my arm out of the socket trying to get. Thank God she didn't run for the skunk or this would be a completely different story!
 

Unique

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Ann, I think it's so cool to have seen a bobcat in the yard. I used to live in the country, but the city is following me out here. I think I'll have to move again.

Shawn! What awesome pictures! I almost choked! My STB ex used to tell me one of our cats was part bobcat. I just blew him off...'yeah, right'. But she looks just like your pictures! No way, no way....is it possible for housecat to breed with bobcat? I wouldn't have put anything past this one's mother. She was a brazen hussy. But maybe the geek was right about something this time. What do you think?
 

SRHowen

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Bobcats and other small non-domestics do breed with domestic cats. Not as regularly as in Europe where the native populations of non-domestics is becoming endangered because of inbreeding with domestics, but they do.

Peri, one of other non-domestics, is a mix. Margay or Ocelot--she's mean as heck.

Did the cat have solid colored black claws and the bottom of her feet the soid black with no white flecks? Then there is a good chance she had some non-domestic in her. They also have shorter front legs than back legs and very very powerful looking hips and hind leds--Butter leaps about 5 or 6 ft in the air chasing flys--or the feather toys.

He may have been right--sheesh, those dumb ex's--once and awhile they hit on a truth.

Shawn