[Offstage: Remember! This is for Tuesday. Not today!]
G’day! Byron the Quokka here; and if I did this right, then this is Tuesday and Lee’s at the vet’s with Peep the Cat and I’m in charge again!
That last faux pas was not my fault. Someone distracted me. I won’t say who. Somebody who got bitten for doing it!
Now–check this out! Our friend “Unknowable” snapped this picture of a bobcat right from his window.
Crikey! Here on Rottnest Island, we voted unanimously not to have bobcats. You know how our island got its name? Some Dutch sailors who’d been at sea for way too long thought us quokkas were… rats! Betcha they were the same sailors who thought manatees were beautiful mermaids. Anyhow, we don’t trust bobcats not to make the same mistake those sailors made.
WOW!!!! That is truly an amazing photo you took there, Unknowable!!
Amazing. I once lived on a ranch in north central Washington and once walked through the woods and came almost this close to a cougar and a brown bear in the same area, but never a bobcat.
Wasn’t that a bit alarming?
Well, no, I wasn’t really alarmed because both took off at a dead run the moment they saw me, and they disappeared into the forest quickly. I came very close to a bear one other time when out hunting pheasant with my husband. That bear ducked into the woods very quickly also.
Great picture, Unknowable!!
Good photo.
I didn’t take it, but I was the first person to spot our visitor and was reaching for my phone when he trotted off. They look just like a very big house cat, but I wouldn’t want him mad at me.
If Peep were that size, she would’ve wiped out a medical team today.
This guy could definitely do some damage. He looked and acted like an oversized house cat, but I suspect that he’d be pretty fierce if he felt challenged.
This is why you shouldn’t have pets that can kill or maim you. I knew a guy who kept rattlesnakes, though…
Venomous snakes as pets seems a horribly ill-conceived notion, at least to my sensibilities. I can understand the fascination; they are fascinating and amazing animals, but if something goes wrong, it can get very bad, very quickly. Likewise with regard to dangerous animals of any species.
There is a guy in South Africa that keeps two tigers as pets. In his case, they are well-contained and I don’t believe he ever goes on their side of the bars, so to speak. I’ve watched some of his videos and, indeed, they are beautiful animals, not to mention the source of endless fascination, but they are also ferocious. One time, the owner had thrown some chicken meat over the fence and the more aggressive of the two tigers became very incensed because he was standing too close to the bars of the cage. Imagine an angry house cat that weighs 400 pounds.
Tigers are probably less predictable than a domestic cat, and domestic cats can be pretty unpredictable. I recently visited a home where there was an older tomcat that became very upset when anything changed his routine. Just a visitor to the home would upset him for days. There was no coaxing him nor any way of getting close enough to demonstrate one’s benign intentions. Had I somehow managed to get close enough to pet him, the response would have been to attack me with full force.
Scale that back to a wild animal and the problem becomes much larger. Wild animals can be tamed, but that does not make them any less a wild animal and doesn’t change their nature. A few years back, there was some starry eyed guy that wanted to commune with the grizzly bears. He thought that by kind words he could win over the animals. Apparently, they found his campsite and his camera had captured footage of him being killed and eaten. I’m torn between pity, disgust and outrage.
I pity him, only for the fact that he had obviously been deceived by a bunch of misinformation. Somewhere along the line, he had adopted some false beliefs.
I’m disgusted because of the stupidity of his acts. Going off and seeking the company of a killer the likes of a grizzly bear is nothing less than stupid. Bears are effective predators and from the perspective of a grizzly bear, a human bears a striking resemblance to lunch. Pros use tranquilizer darts and I suspect that there’s someone with a large caliber rifle standing by in case things go wrong.
My outrage stems from the lack of sense which has permeated our society. I don’t hate wildlife in any way shape or form, but wildlife is nothing with which to trifle. Throughout the ages, humans have had to defend themselves from wildlife by any means possible. Before the advent of firearms, a bear or lion nearby was a very formidable threat. Closer to home, there was a mountain lion spotted near an elementary school north of Tucson. It was tranquillized and relocated. When it returned to the vicinity of the school, they shot it. That mountain lion wasn’t hanging around the schoolyard for recreational purposes. It saw small humans and calculated that he might make a meal of one. When the mountain lion was killed, there was a public outcry. Apparently being kind to animals is more important than not having some child killed and eaten. I find that outrageous.
People seem to have lost track of the fact that the secure world we live in, day-to-day, is possible because we defended ourselves from dangers, and have throughout history. When I was a child, sighting a coyote was rare. They had been all but hunted to extinction, because they were a real problem. Now they are protected and they have become a menace. I’ve been stared down by a coyote and can tell you from firsthand experience that they are not friendly dogs. I can never let my cat outside because of them. I’ve seen them in my yard and it’s not a pleasant sight. Any sort of domestic animal has to be protected from them.
Coyotes WILL try to lure dogs into the brush, to be ambushed. The thing is, most dogs have more sense than some of the starry eyed hopefuls among the human race and don’t fall for the ploy. I’ve seen this play out with my own eyes.
There’s a lot of interesting wildlife where I live and near my workplace. Just watching the Javelina can be fascinating and the more exotic species will gather a crowd, instantly, such as when I exclaimed “it’s a Bobcat” and everyone in our department came to see it. But we were safely behind glass and out of the Bobcat’s reach. Likewise for the Javelina spotting, snake spotting, and whatever else shows up. Frankly, I’m more intimidated by the Javelina than anything else. They aren’t renowned for their common sense, but they are named for their javelin-like tusks. A few years back, I had a pair of them running in my direction, panicked. I jumped in the bed of my truck and watched from a spot they couldn’t reach. 🙂
Just try walking up to the javelinas with a lot of kitchy-koo, and see how far you get.
I suppose it’s natural to romanticize wild animals. After all, we presume all our domestic animals are descended from wild ones. The placid, friendly cows I used to pet, as a little boy, were bred over the centuries from not-so-placid wild cattle.
There’s something in us that makes us want to connect with animals. But there’s also something in us called a brain, which a lot of people ought to make more use of.
I have seen people purposely get within 50’ or so of Javelina, feeling safe. Well, you’re safe until you aren’t, in that situation. If daddy boar decides you are a threat and he and a few of his progeny decide to come after you, you’d better be very fleet of foot.
We want Eden. I know I do and, yes, I want to pet the big cats. However, we are not in Eden and haven’t been for some time. Even from the beginning, there are wild animals and domestic animals. A tiger is about as beautiful as any animal alive, but even if it were not aggressive, it would not be a good thing to have around the house. The litter box alone is the stuff of nightmares. Wild animals are best left to their own world and admired from a safe distance.
Agreed!