While I know there are many of you who have lived with bobcats as part of your local fauna for years, these fascinating animals have only recently made a reappearance into their former territories here and my husband and I get fairly excited when one shows itself. We are crossing our fingers that this carnivore will do the local ecosystem a favor and maybe make a dent in the overpopulated deer herd.

Anyway, three days back my husband and I were out strolling up and down the road in front of our acreage, as I was trying to explain some of the projects I was working on in the yard and what I hoped things would look like when I was done. While we were chatting, the neighbor drove by in his truck and I mentioned to my husband that we would have to be on the lookout for their dogs, the two sweetest rat terriers in the world, because they had taken up trying to follow the truck and winding up several miles from home and getting into all sorts of trouble. Several minutes passed and we were discussing whether a dead tree was a threat to the house when I saw something moving around one of the flower beds at the corner of the yard. It was Jack, the brown and white terrier...sure enough, the dogs had made it this far down the road. So I turned toward the first dog and hollered up at him "Jack, you know better, little man! You get back home RIGHT NOW." Jack knows my serious voice from my " biscuit voice" and wasted no time in heading back up the road towards home. I was quietly giggling and started to turn around to say something to my husband when he said, "Well, which dog is THAT?" Sitting in the road about a hundred feet past the garage, regarding us calmly, was what looked like another dog, only on stilts. At first my brain wouldn't work, because the two hemispheres were arguing over how a rat terrier named Stubby that probably would not weigh 10 pounds nor stand over 8 inches at the shoulder could possibly look anything like that. My husband said it first..."my gosh, that's gotta be our bobcat!" I guess my brain finally hit the CNTL ALT DEL buttons because the fog cleared and I realized my binocs were right there on the front steps where I keep them handy during warblering season. I went dashing up the drive and returned with them, only to have to hand them off to the Hub because I was breathing so hard I couldn't hold them still. The cat certainly felt no pressing need for a Big Getaway because it finally sauntered off down the road at what can only be descibed as a housecat's pace, stopping to check out rustlings and interesting smells and the usual things in the grass that cats love to pause for. Even without the glasses I could see it wiggle its stub of a tail occasionally, which was something I did not expect...had it had a tail of the length of a normal cat, it would have been walking down the road with it held high in the air, like a housecat will do when it is totally relaxed or greeting a trusted owner. And then (and this drives me nuts because I was not the one with the binocs so I have to take his observations for the truth) it stopped and backed up and sprayed a clump of grass like any self-respecting tom would do. So unless female bobs do this marking too-and some female housecats will- I am assuming we have a male about the place, which is good to hear since I saw the female with two kittens two falls back during deer season. Maybe the numbers will keep going up.

At any rate, we watched the cat til it entered some weeds along the creek and disappeared, and talked excitedly about it for some time after. I still don't understand how some people would feel threatened by a bobcat. I surprised a female with kittens and she froze, growled, and then took off as if shot. Any animal will defend itself when necessary, but except for the long legs, none of the animals I have seen looked to be even close to 25 pounds at best. I just have doubts about the rumors of people randomly being attacked and so on.

At any rate, they are welcome here. I think I will better spend my time watching out for yellowjackets and low-hanging hornet's nests. THOSE are the things that you have to watch out for.