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What’s scarcer than hen’s teeth? Goose lips in a Bobcat’s body

I started finding feathers here and there in the yard. I never found the chickens they belonged to. I would be short a duck one day and then a chicken on another. I couldn’t find any holes in the chicken coop wire so I figured they must be nabbed during the day. As the girls free ranged during the day, they had full swing of the yard and all the property in the back. It wouldn’t take much effort to lie along the fringes and snap one up as it walked by. I looked all around the yard each time I went to feed the girls in the morning.

I was watching for something, but not knowing what to expect. Then one day I spotted something sitting outside the garden fence. I stopped walking and stood. I know it was watching me because it got up and looked at me. I must have been 300 yards away but I could clearly see it was a bobcat. There was no mistaking the shape of the head and pointed ears. Besides his spotted coat the cat sported a duck in its mouth. Well, I certainly wasn’t going to run over and snatch the duck away, so I just watched. Soon he sat down, ignored me and got back to his noon day snack.

I called the fish and game warden. He came out with a large live trap. I baited it but the cat was very clever. It managed to elude the trap each time. It was several weeks later and several dozen birds gone by the way of the buffet when I found a dead goose. The goose looked like it stuck its head trough the chain link coop fence and the bobcat snapped his head off. As the cat wasn’t able to get the body through the fence it was still there in the morning. The goose became the bait for the trap. The next morning I went to check. There were feathers everywhere in the cage. In the middle of the feathers sat a huge mama bobcat. She was big. I ran to call the game warden. He said he would come out that day and pick her up and take her to an area that was unpopulated and let her go.

While we waited for him to come we took pictures and called my sister and some friends to come and see. Even with all the visitors the cat sat very calmly and watched everyone. She had the largest lipid gold eyes I have ever seen. They floated in pools of black framed by an exquisitely spotted face. On each side of her nose were fluffy sideburns of fur out of which protruded her whiskers. She had an elegant patterned coat and big paws. She was truly the most beautiful wild animal I had ever seen.

As docile she was sitting calmly in the cage she was capable of shredding a person to pieces. Not unlike the cartoon character where the cat shreds the dog and he falls apart in slices. She was no cartoon and we weren’t about to call her bluff, so we just stood back and watched at a distance appreciating her beauty and elegance. When the game warden came they slid two poles through the cage wires and carried her to the waiting truck. She still sat as obedient as could be. I was sorry to see her leave but I knew if she stayed around that I would soon have no chickens left.

Things settled down for about two weeks. Then I started missing chickens again. Oh, no, she didn’t come back, did she? The game warden assured me he would take her at least twenty-five miles away. The flock still dwindled down. I called the warden again and he brought the cage out again. We baited it with Harriet or Myrtle, whoever was dead and still lying around. Sounds gruesome, but life on the farm teaches you not to cry over natures activities.

It was about 6 weeks from the time we caught the other one until the morning I came out to find the cage filled with the meanest, Tasmanian Devil cat in the neighborhood. He had teeth gnashing, paws tearing, feathers flying, eating the cage up. Thankfully he couldn’t chew up the bars of the cage, or we would be the next on his list. He took one look at me and started to rage some more. He definitely was not a happy camper. He was a young teen-age size male. We figured he must have been one of the female cats’ offspring. He was down right nasty. It didn’t take much of his attitude to stay far away from the cage. The warden came and hauled him off too. I was really glad to see him go. I don’t think the game warden was happy to take him.

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