Monday, June 10, 2013

Who's Watching Who?

The bobcat story...
As "luck" would have it I happened to look out my window in time to see a bobcat meandering through the pasture just across the fence from my house. I grabbed my binocs and began stalking her!
While gawking it occurred to me that Simon was not in the house yet...and my heart dropped. Not even a minute later he came in the cat door and hopped up on the table right next to me. After investigating what I was eating he looked outside and saw the bobcat. He immediately started growling, furz standing up and then he jumped down and wanted to go out the cat door. I lunged to lock it before he got there, thank goodness! So, he hopped back up onto the table and we continued gawking. Well, I was gawking and he was very seriously sending out "I'm gonna kick your bobcat ass" vibes!!!
In order for me to continue watching I had to very quietly go outside and begin following the bobcat as she strode out into the front pasture. Every time she stopped, I stopped, waited and then took as many quiet, barefoot steps towards her as I could. We continued this dance for awhile. Sometimes when she stopped she would hunt (unsuccessfully) and sometimes just rest on her haunches and look around.
At a certain point she remained in one place for awhile so I kept walking indirectly towards her until I sensed that I was at her energetic boundary. She was crouched down low to the ground and there was a slight rise between us. I got down low enough so that she couldn't see my body at all and just waited a bit. When I slowly sat back up I noticed that she was sitting up again on her haunches looking at me. We both sat awhile looking at each other...until my overly excited human self started walking her direction again. I could feel in myself THE step that was one too many. She got up, looked at me and quickly turned to leave. She looked a couple more times directly at me before running off. But she didn't run very far before realizing that I was not moving at all so she stopped and resumed her sauntering, only this time she went around the back of the property. With a bobcat full heart, I decided to leave the poor girl alone and go home. As I walked up I could see Simon still on the table, his eyes big and round! I came inside and had to return a phone call. Much to my surprise, as I talked on the phone I turned to look outside and guess who had circled the perimeter of the property and was now back in a similar place where she had begun, staring into my house? As my friend said: "who was watching who?!!!"

1 comment:

Gina Kelly said...

How fun!! Remember the time we saw a bobcat out in the back 40? I doubt it's the same one, this was years ago. How cool though that you got to have this interaction, I'm a lil' jealous. ;)