bobcat | wordsfromanneli

I’m pretty sure this is a bobcat (not a lynx – which looks very similar). If you see one of these fellows in your neighbourhood, make sure you keep your little dog or cat in the house while the big guy is prowling around.

This guy was NOT in my yard, and I’m thankful for that.

If you have Bob visiting your neighbourhood, be sure not to leave pet food outside, or have a lot of birdseed lying around your bird feeding station. You may find them interested in your fruit trees when the fruit is ripe. A healthy bobcat probably won’t attack you. It is more interested in your favourite squirrels that live in your woodshed.

If you’re out for a walk in the woods and you see a bobcat, it’s probably a good idea to pick up any small children you may have with you. We can never know how desperate a bobcat may be.

Robert and Roberta Cat

Say they’re bobcats and that’s that.

Bob and Bobbi hunt for squirrels,

Even one that jumps and twirls.

Chase them up and down the tree,

Sneaking up when they don’t see.

Evening time they have a rest,

That’s the time they like the best.

Snug inside their little den,

Under tree roots now and then,

Sometimes underneath a cliff,

Perched beneath a ledge to sniff.

They keep watch for their next meal,

Mouse or mole it’s no big deal.

And on sunny days they rest,

While they let their lunch digest.

If we had watered it, or if there had been any rain in the last six weeks, our driveway would have been green. So much soil has been created by nature’s cycle of dropped leaves and fir needles that the driveway became almost like a messy golf fairway. All it needed was a hole punched into the middle of the turnaround and a tiny flagpole posted there.

But last week, a little Bobcat scraped that fairway clean of its dry, weedy “green.”

In this drought, the dust clouds filled the air as Bob the cat worked to renew our driveway.

I was amazed at the way a shovel could smooth the ground and a toothed kind of shovel could scrape the earth like giant metal fingernails.

Finally, the living part of the driveway was removed and only a foundation of the old crushed rock remained.

But more crushed rock was needed, so the first of several loads arrived. Bob the cat stood by ready to go back to work. You see he has the shovel back on and his claws are put away.

Here is the first load spread around.

I am always amazed at the way a good operator can move soil or crushed rock around as if the machine were an extension of his hand. In this short video, you will see how skillfully he “plays” with the crushed rock to make a smooth driveway surface.

By the time the crew was finished we had a clean new driveway.