Letter: Lynx or bobcat?
We live in Homestead with open space nearby. For about two to three months this winter, our backyard has been full of bunny rabbit fur and parts, scattered all over the place. We thought that the red foxes or coyotes were having a smorgasbord.
However, one day in mid-February, my wife and I were looking out the window toward the back yard and a large cat ran across the yard and went on to our lower deck and disappeared. It had ears with tall black tufts, a short tail with a black tip and was pretty solid gray in color, no spots, stripes or brown color.
Our next door neighbors told us a few days ago that they have also seen this cat a couple of times in our backyard. We have a large family of rabbits living under our lower deck and we often see them in open space or see their tracks in the snow on our driveway or deck or in the snow around the house. But, recently, the tracks have not been seen very often. The last bunny I remember was the day we saw the cat.
Yesterday, my wife looked out the window and saw a big ball of bunny fur on a branch about 10 feet up in a cottonwood tree behind the house. An hour later, she said it had fallen to the ground but she wanted nothing to do with it. So, I put on some gloves and picked it up. It was indeed the remains of the fur of a bunny, but it still had a full leg attached to it. There was also a broken branch near the fur that was about 3 feet long and 1 inch in diameter. How did that get up in the tree?
Magpies have been seen carrying dead robins up into trees or roof tops. The article in the Daily today says the cats will climb trees to wait for prey. I doubt that a magpie is heavy enough to break a limb off the tree but a big cat could.
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We live in a zoo up here with all kinds of rare and wild animals in our yard from time to time doing some strange things. Does anyone have a good guess as to what the cat is that we have seen?
Don Donnalley
Edwards
