The Pet Bobcat

 

                 You ever have one of those days when everything is going great and then it happens. Well, that’s just what happened to me. I was minding my own business chasing the chickens around the yard when it happened. I had just caught a baby chick when I heard a noise behind me that didn’t sound good. I turned around and all I could see was chicken feathers and wings. A rooster had jumped me. I dropped that chick and tried to run, but it was no use I was getting a beating. That rooster and me was rolling around on the ground, him beating me every which way but loose, me just wanting to live to see another day. 

                I managed to get way and ran like my butt was on fire. When I finally stopped to inspect the damage I looked like I had been run over by a herd of stampeding turkeys and until you’re run over by a herd of turkeys don’t laugh. I mean to tell you when that rooster had me his wings and feet were going like a buzz saw on me, there were feathers, skin and hair flying everywhere.    I was never so glad to get away from anything except for the time Max and I had caught a bobcat.

                We were sitting around talking and the subject of pets came up. Then the subject of wild pets came up. We had heard about a guy that had bobcats for pets. We figured if he could do it we could to. Why, if we had a bobcat all the kids in school would be jealous of us. So with that in mind we sat out up the river with our every faithful dog Butch in tow to find a bobcat.

                After about an hour of climbing and throwing things in the river and at each other Butch started barking and we caught a glimpse of him chasing a bobcat. PAY DIRT. Now Butch is not too fast because he is pretty old but he managed to run this cat into a hole. Now if he did that he cat was either as old as grandma or a kitten. It turned out to be a kitten. Now the hole he was hiding in was not too deep, about four feet, because we had seen it before on other adventures.

                We didn’t we would have any problems getting him out and into our sack, so Max volunteered me to go in and get him. Being all trusting and knowing Max, my very best friend, wouldn’t ask me to do anything he wouldn’t do, I crawled right in.

                I reached out and grabbed that cat by the front foot and the fight was on. Dirt and fur and skin was flying everywhere. I managed to get my hand back without losing too much skin and with all my fingers still attached, but that bobcat wasn’t through with me yet, he was still trying to eat me. I was trying to crawl out of that hole and Max kept pushing me back in. He must of thought I was having trouble keeping that bobcat cornered. That cat finally managed to get over the top of me with his claws digging big furrows in my backside as he went by.   When he left that hole in high gear he ran right into the gunny sack that Max was holding, through ne effort on Max’s part.

                When I finally managed to crawl out of the hole Max had that cat all trussed up in the sack ready to go home. He just looked at me and asked why I had so much trouble, that cat was plum anxious to go with us. Me, I just looked back at him with my hair standing up, my clothes torn to shreds and my skin hanging in pieces. 

                We took the cat in the sack and started back home with that cat spitting and howling the all the way. When we got back to Max’s house we went in the kitchen to tell his mom what we had. She was washing dishes when we came in and Max said, “Mom, guess what we caught today for a pet?” 

                She asked “what’s that dear?” and turned around drying a plate to look at us right when Max opened the sack and let that bobcat out. “A bobcat” he said stupidly. That cat jumped out of the sack and made about six laps around the kitchen walls and counters before it hit the floor.  Max’s mom let out a shriek along with that cat and dropped that plate and just laid down on the floor to take a nap. She really needs to start getting more sleep at night, poor woman.

                That cat was tearing up everything in sight, and knocking things off the counter onto the floor. After what seemed like ten minutes that cat found an open window, hit the screen like wasn’t there and was gone. By the time Max and me got there to look out it was nowhere in sight. We looked around the kitchen, there was cat tracks on the floor, the walls, the ceiling and just about anywhere you can imagine and they were white tracks because he managed to run through some flour on his many laps.

                We looked at his mom and decided we had better retreat to our clubhouse and just let her sleep, lord knows she must need it.

                We talked about that bobcat for a good while and decided that maybe it wasn’t the best choice for a pet, maybe a baby skunk would be better.

 

-30-