Big Cat Sighting

Living in a rural area, we see a good amount of wildlife that city folks don't ordinarily see.  I'd list coyotes as one, but since they show up in the city with increasing regularity, I don't suppose they are all that unusual no matter where you live.  We get a lot of deer, and it's a constant battle trying to keep them from eating everything in the garden.

For the last year the entire neighborhood has been a-twitter about a cougar sighting.  I've never seen the cougar, and I have extreme doubts about the validity of these claims.  One of our closest neighbors (who is in his late sixties at least) has lived here all of his life--in the same house.  He says in all those years he's never seen a cougar.  I tend to believe him.  Furthermore, the neighbors who are most worked up about the cougar seem to be of a mindset that someone should shoot it at the first opportunity.  I really don't understand that way of thinking.  The sightings have been so rare, and it seems to be so elusive, that I doubt very much that it is a threat to anyone.  I kind of think the cougar has more right to be here than we do.

In any case, a plumber came to our house recently and told us he'd seen a bobcat right at the gate to our property.  He said he lived in Eastern Oregon as a kid and that he knows what a bobcat looks like.  And, again, I found myself skeptical of this claim.  I think I'm the kind of person who has to see it to believe it.  (Can you see where this is going?)  So yesterday as I drove through the gate on my way home, there it was!  It was a cat about the size of  border collie.  His (her?) spotted markings were unmistakable.  I suppose it's possible that it could have been a large domestic cat, but it would be the biggest cat I've ever seen.  The fact that it's been seen twice in the same place would lead me to believe it's living somewhere around us.  As I read about its preferred habitat, I can believe we have some areas that a bobcat would like.

I'm not really worried about it.  It's a big cat, but not big enough to be a threat to humans.  Also, I did some reading about what kinds of things they like to eat.  Generally, they prefer hares, beavers, birds, grass and berries, although they have been known to eat deer as well.  If I had a dog I might be worried, but I doubt very much that it would be interested in George and Gracie.  (It seems a little cannibalistic, don't you think?)

I like this part of country living--the unusual birds and mammals that we see.  As a cat lover, having a resident bobcat seems particularly cool.  It seems extremely shy, and so I don't suppose I'll ever get a picture of it.  But I am going to keep my camera in the car for a while just in case I see it again.