Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Bobcat Sighting and we now have Indoor Cats!
A bobcat came into our backyard yesterday in broad daylight and looked through the window at Tiger and Benji. I have never even seen one in the wild before, much less in a residential neighborhood. After this scary sighting, we will now officially have indoor cats, another adjustment for Benji, who’d been used to going outside during the day. At least he has a lot of good indoor space, as he has already mostly taken over my office!
I’m thankful Bob built the window seat recently, so Benji can sit on high and watch the action. Tiger won’t notice the difference as he rarely went outside. Life is full of changes for all of us, and so we keep adjusting.
~ Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 
Thank goodness Benji was inside when the bobcat came to visit! OMG! Stay safe.
Yes!! Raccoons were bad enough, but I never in my wildest dreams thought there were bobcats around!
Yikes! That is scary. I’m glad they were both inside.
Me too! 🙀
Hopefully there isn’t food left outside by any neighbors and this Bobcast moves on at some point…of course, hard to know when that will be.
Yes, so scary. Bob said he was on our deck, up against the window looking at the cats. I only saw him in our yard as he was leaving. We don’t feed the cats outside, or even the birds other than the hummingbirds, so I’m not sure what attracted him. We will definitely be keeping the cats in for a while, decide later if it will be permanent.
Wow, scary, Susanne. Looks like your kitties have a nice set up!
It really was scary. I didn’t know bobcats were around, but this one was fearless coming right up to our sliding glass door and looking at the cats. It’s going to be a big adjustment for Benji not to be let outside at all during the day, even though he’s got everything he could want inside!
That would be! I left that short comment due to trouble leaving them. So much wildlife is displaced now.
Better to be safe than sorry. Benji will adjust. 🙂
Yes. He’s been adjusting to so much the last year. After he became a tripod, he lost his outdoor privileges at night, and for the past couple of months he’s only been going out for an hour or two during daytime hours. Unfortunately, that will have to stop. Too risky for now.
That is scary. I am glad you have decided to keep the cats inside.
Yes, it was a real shock!
Wow! I had no idea bobcats were in residential areas there. Did you report it? The cats are definitely safer inside if they’re around.
I was shocked! I looked all over the web to see if I needed to report it and came up empty. I finally put in on a site for the state of Washington. I posted it on Facebook, and learned a few friends had similar encounters (one lost chickens to a bobcat.) I may try again to see if anyone cares, but I think they’re protected.
I doubt they’d kill it, protected or not, but they might try to trap and relocate it. Here, I’d start with our State’s Department of Land and Natural Resources but the set up might be different in Washington.
I went to Dept of Fish and Wildlife website but it was not clear how to report a bobcat sighting. I found a link and entered it into an observation database, but I don’t know whether anyone follows up. It sounds like they don’t relocate wild animals unless they’re a nuisance. There are a lot of woods where I live, and close to rivers and foothills. I’ll try to find a number locally to see what they say, but probably nothing to do unless I see it again.
😳
A shame for Benji if he has to stay indoors, but much better safe than sorry!
His outdoor privileges had been getting smaller and smaller since his injury. And we still have snow so he’s less inclined this week anyway. It will be much harder when the weather improves, so we’ll see as time goes on..
😱 That is so scary!
It was so shocking! 🙀😿
Wow, that’s really scary!
Yes, so surprising! 😮
I have actually seen videos on Twitter of domestic cats hitting Bobcats and the Bobcats running away. But you can’t take that chance of course.
Best wishes, Pete.
Unfortunately that bobcat would have an easy time of it against our 3 legged boy. Hopefully it will leave the area so Benji can go back outside when the good weather returns.