Bobcats

In my area of Mills County, Texas, bobcats abound, especially in the spring when the sheep and goats are birthing.  Spring being right around the corner, driving along our County roads, we are seeing more bobcats, in fact, I’ve seen 2 young ones since the end of deer season and had one come by the feeder this year, but for all we see, many more avoid us!  These 15 to 40 pounders even have 2 scientific names, felis rufus or lynx rufus, the latter name is generally accepted.  James Crumley’s son shot this one on January 20th.  James is my neighbor to the west.

A little over 2 years ago, the last day of deer season in 2009, I shot my first bobcat.  See my post of January 3, 2010, “[Wesley Breaks The Ice]”, for the rest of the story.  The male bobcat taken that day is displayed in our great room and the floor mount is by Mickey Donahoo.

Yesterday, a neighbor on my east, R.C. Edmundson, stopped by all excited, because he had just lured a female bobcat into his trap.  Last month he had released 6 or 8 turkeys, 2 guinea fowl and 2 dominicker hens on his property trying to establish a free range, turkey farm, but because of, probably this female, bobcat, his plans failed!  The cat, or cats, ate all of the birds except one hen that he used for bait in the trap.  The pictures show the bobcat and the one remaining hen and the bobcat ready to pounce on me!