Cat Tracks?

[N80]

We have bobcats around here. I've seen a lot of them. They are very shy and reclusive. Most are not much bigger than a big housecat but some are considerably bigger. I don't shoot them. They really have no impact on game bird or wildlife population. Feral cats, barn cats, coyotes, wild dogs are all much worse. So I leave them alone.

Here's a good story though: A farmer friend was jogging for exercise down the long country road in front of his farm. He had on a pair of cut off blue jeans and a pair of Chuck Taylors and thats all. As he is heading back to the house he sees a cat sitting in the middle of the road. He thinks its odd that one of his barn cats would be this far from the barn but he keeps jogging towards it. He notices that it looks bigger than his barn cats and as he gets closer the cat starts jogging toward him! But, he thinks its just a big stray and just keeps going. As they converge he sees that this thing is pretty big. He stops, cat keeps coming. Then he sees its a bobcat and it is obviously coming right at him. Now he is a little worried. Wonders if it might be rabid. As so he heads for the ditch and the cat changes course to pursue him, now he's in the ditch and briars, gets through the barbed wire fence into the pasture and the cat stops in the road and watches him. He looks down at himself and he is scratched all to heck from the briars and the fence.

In any case he goes home via the field and comes back in his truck. Bobcat is now sitting in the road where he first saw it. Just off the road, in a small tree, are three bobcat kittens.

He figured that compared to the fence and the briars he'd have come out better if he'd tangled with the momma cat!

 

[mjarrels]

Two guys were camping one night and heard a bobcat in the woods. One of the guys said I'm going to catch that bobcat and off he went. A bit later, the other guy hears this terrible noise and yells out, need any help catching that bobcat, other guy says no but I could use some help letting him go.

mark

 

[jinman]

Last week, as I was driving to work, I saw a bobcat trot across the road in front of me. Actually, it was more of a full sprint, but not a frightened retreat at all. Were was it? It was behind the big GE Lighting warehouse at Dallas-Fort Worth airport. That's right near the fuel facility on the west side of the airport.

I was driving from Grapevine on a back road that cuts through open area around the airport. My guess is the bobcat had been over around the warehouse looking for rodents or some other food source. There is one fencerow line of trees broken by the road and the bobcat was following that line of trees. Its size, markings, and short tail made it obvious what it was. Every time I go by there now, I'll be looking for it, but probably will never see it again.

It's not unusual to see coyotes and wild turkeys around the airport. Two weeks ago, I was going somewhere at noon and there was a big hen turkey standing right in the middle of the hood of a Jeep Cherokee in our parking lot. If I only had had my camera...