Certainly something that I would not have expected to find anywhere around my cabin. Something that doesn’t make itself known very often at all. But on rare occasions I get the thrill of my life, when a Bobcat (Lynx rufus) makes an appearance. These creatures are secretive in nature, solitary, territorial, and nocturnal, most often hunting at dawn and dusk. Their favorite meal is rabbit but they’ll hunt down squirrels, rodents, lizards, snakes, skunks, muskrats, beavers, ground-nesting birds and even deer. They sleep during the day in multiple den areas which can be hollow trees, rock crevices or rock piles, caves, brush piles and even abandoned beaver lodges.

Adult Bobcats are about twice the size of a domestic cat. Weighing in at about 13 to 30 pounds, standing 18 to 24 inches high, and are 30-50 inches in length. In the wild they can live anywhere from 5 to 15 years. Their range is all of the continental United States, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, living in areas of dense vegetation.

I haven’t seen a Bobcat in a while but I’ve been watching and waiting. Maybe one day soon.