bobcat week finale

Here we are at the end of the week. Although technically, bobcat week for us has been a little more like bobcat summer, because that is how long they have been visiting us off and on. Oh ya, and that one time in February when one of them surprised me on that early rainy morning. The first time the Momma sauntered across our patio this summer, while Leah and I were in the pool, sure gave us a bit of a fright. It was so shocking to see how perfectly calm she was to pass right by and not run off as we made a little noise. It is hard to tell the size of these cats from my pictures, but really they are rather small. I think that is what makes them feel a little less "scary" to us because Momma is not much bigger than our favorite yellow cat Fidgit.

My sister and her family adopted Fidgit and our dog Jackson when we left Colorado. Fidgit would not have fared well against these neighborhood cats. But, because we miss him, I think the cuteness of the bobcat babies remind us of the time the two stray cats found our house and decided tuna was tasty and they would make our family theirs. This is where I stress that we only think these wild cats are a bit cute and fun to watch at times, but we do not in any way want them to call our yard their home. We do try to scare them off when they are around and we are not feeding them(not even tuna). They have brought their own meals and help themselves (much to our dismay) to the pool water. It has been interesting to watch them and photograph them, which is usually done behind the safety of the windows. We are now in the habit of looking around to see if they are close by before we venture into the yard. So, even though my pictures and stories make it sound like they are welcome visitors, we would prefer them to move on. I think the babies have gotten old enough now and that is what has happened. We are seeing less and less of them and I think we have thrown enough ice, pool splash balls, and the occasional grill scraper, that they are visiting our yard less and less. In fact, we saw them one day in the front of the house this week and that has been it.

So, this could be the end of our bobcat adventure. We do wonder if they are like some animals that come back to the place they were born to have their own babies. If that is the case...the Reptile Wrangler will be a busy guy.

I end bobcat week with a video that Rachel put together of some movie clips that I made of them playing in the yard. You will see the little one with the bum leg and Gus, Molly and the Momma having fun.

Cute. snarl. Fun.