August 29, 2009

Why my houndy cur-dog Smoke is on a leash


Bobcat.

I was going to title this post "Hello Bobcat," but the photo is worse than terrible and everyone is going to think I made the whole thing up [weeps].

Anyhow — it was mid-morning and I walked out the back door with a couple of dogs [collies, thank heaven - if you can call them off sheep, you can call them off anything] and looking at me from maybe 30 feet up the hill, in plain sight next to a patch of buckthorn, was a full-grown bobcat.

The dogs, my ten year old siblings Gray and Twig, never gave any sign that they saw him or smelled him. He turned and stepped off with all deliberate bobcatness, the way they do, and I put the dogs in the cabin and got a camera.

The camera was in a camera bag and the camera bag was hanging behind a door, and the shot above was the only photo of maybe a dozen with anything like a bobcat in it. Next time the camera will be ready and I'll be all over that beast like Last of the Mohicans.

Meanwhile, in the cheap seats: "Bobcat! Bobcat incoming! Bobcat at two o'clock! Gah, why do we even bother." Bounce and the landshark would also like everyone to notice that the cabin needs log oil.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I swear I just see a jackrabbit. :) Just kidding, I sympathize with your plight. The one time I saw a mountain lion butt, my camera was three miles away at home laughing at me.

Luisa said...

OMG, it does kind of look like a jackrabbit [beats head on rocks].

Anonymous said...

Log oil is one of the reasons I no longer live in a log house.

My dream is to live in a house where cleaning means periodic power-washing, both inside and out.