A few days ago I wrote about spotting a long-legged wild cat where I’ve been walking in a Southern California wildlife area. I tried to work through it with friends. Was it a bobcat, a mountain lion, or what? We ruled out mountain lion. But bobcat didn’t seem to fit. The legs were too long. The tail was too long.
I’ve seen the cat three times. The first time I saw her calmly carrying a dead rabbit around a bend in the trail as the dog and I were approaching. The cat didn’t freak out too much, though my heart was racing. She simply went from a walk to a trot away from us until she saw people and dogs coming from the opposite direction. She then took her kill into the brush.
The picture I snapped was too far away for a positive ID. But the legs were way too long to be a bobcat. My sister and I had seen a bobcat while camping in Yosemite and it was very low to the ground. I consulted with a mounted horse trainer I’d been encountering on the trail. He had seen the cat and thought it was “huge” for a bobcat.
I drove over and spoke with a ranger. He assured me it wasn’t a cougar (mountain lion) as all of them are wearing tracking collars, and he figured it was simply a “robust” bobcat.
Today I got some new information. As I was leaving the park this afternoon, Ranger Steve drove by on his park patrols and parked his white truck nearby. He wanted to tell me that he had seen my dog hanging her head out the window a few days ago while I was driving on the road into town and he had thought: “What an interesting looking dog.” Then he saw us today and realized that was the dog. I took the opportunity to ask him about the long-legged bobcat. He’s familiar with her and noted that she’s very brave and not skittish. He said she is very unusual looking for a bobcat.
Steve offered a theory. About a mile from the park there lives a family who said that a while back they kept seeing what’s called an African Wildcat in the park. These cats are not indiginous to the area, so it must have been a pet. He figures a bobcat bred with the African Wildcat and produced the cat I keep seeing. That made sense. I told him about the rabbit, and he was pleased to hear of the hearty meal. He said the long-legged cat had three kittens a few months ago, but he didn’t think they lived with her anymore.
I look for my little friend everyday. Yesterday, my dog must have found her beneath some brush along the trail because my dog lunged and something pretty big rustled away into the bushes. I’m not proud my dog harassed my little friend. But just knowing she had been nearby made me happy.
I’ll be leaving this area in a few days for my high mountain camp, and I’ll miss my pal. I keep saying I’m not a cat person. But maybe I am.