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Dispatches from Arizona: Faceoff in the Backyard
This backyard isn’t big enough for the both of us. They both went off in separate directions without fighting. You never know what you’ll see in the backyard.
Looks like you need to weed the cactus bed. :^)
Fantastic!
Cute. What are they exactly? Do bobcats have stripes?
Roundup.
Some stripes, the one standing was taller, and had a lighter coat. The other was smaller, younger, and they usually have slightly darker coat. I estimate the taller one was slightly over 30 inches tall at the shoulders. They have about a 12 foot leap.
We just had two days of rain, and the weeds come back right away. I’ll probably call in a crop duster to cover the yard with Roundup. By Friday we’re supposed to hit 109 that and the Roundup will take of the weed problem.
Biggest things I see in my backyard are rabbits, and they generally get carried off by the mosquitos.
Well, that’s reassuring. Doug is your insurance paid up? Just asking.
Regards,
Jim
Straight forward from here:
Photos of Bobcats are taken from inside the house. They visit the backyard on a fairly regular basis. I have been in the backyard when one has come over the wall. A healthy Bobcat will not try and close the distance with you. They don’t run from you, they walk away from you. I always observe their behavior, if their walk, or the behavior is erratic it might have contracted rabies. That will be the Bobcat that will attack. A phone call to Fish & Wildlife can solve that problem.
I think that’s getting a little too familiar, isn’t it? Should you refer to him as Mr. Robert Cat, I mean, at least until you’ve been formally introduced. “Please, call me Bob.”
Do you have coyotes in your area and if so what happens when they meet up with the cats?
Cool! Only excitement around here was a hawk tearing a finch apart while sitting on our back wall yesterday.
I liked the javelinas and roadrunners around my mom’s old house. Very cool.
EJ,
A word to the wise. Never call a creature that can leap 12 feet and has very effective fangs & claws by a familiar name without at least some sort of introduction. EJ are you working on that inter-species etiquette primer again. Just curious. I wonder how that woman ended up inside the 22-foot python? Perhaps she received an elegant gold leaf lettered invitation. You don’t think she just crashed the snake, do you?
Regards,
Jim
We do have coyotes, I think the cats are pretty adept at avoiding them. We have everything that can bite, stab, or sting you. The plant life would also be included among the stab crowd.
They told her to park between the PYLONS. Honest mistake.
Cuddle with those kitties and you’ll never play the guitar again!
Gaia wants you to hug the bobcat so as to let her know you respect her womynhood. Let me know how it goes.
I have found evidence in the form of pug prints in my backyard which could have been cougar or possibly bobcat. Both have very large feet. Several cougars have been shot in my area over the years. Bears used to be more common than they are, but the boom in housing in the area seems to have driven them further back into the surrounding hills. Having wild animals in proximity to my home is something I have always enjoyed. I keep my dogs inside of the house at night for their safety. Among other animals I have had on my property are mule deer, opossum, raccoons, mountain beaver (I had to look that one up after my half Lab/half Malmute killed it), and, of course, the everpresent moles who diligently destroyed my lawn. Coyotes frequently make nighttime forays through my pasture at night. Other than the moles, I have never taken any action to keep these long time residents of the area off my property. The moles won the battle, so they too remain permanent residents.
I am calling shenanigans on this myth of oversized mosquitos inhabiting the northern reaches of the Mississippi headwaters. I have more than a passing familiarity with several swamp areas in the WI, MN, and MI (which are amazingly where they tend to locate small airports). In those locations I have been eaten alive by some of the most voracious hordes of tiny mosquitos I have even been camping around, but they are tiny.
If you told me they coordinate and conspire to group lift calves and small children to be sucked dry from any source that could save the victims, well that myth I could buy….
Do the dog trainers accept small children as well?
It was way less exciting in the city. All I ever encountered were lizards, which I hate.
Cleaning the litter box more often will keep them happier . . .
My dogs are Labradors who should be able to fend off coyotes, but the local pack is nearly 20 strong, so even a big, big dog might have a problem. A friend was dog-sitting another friend’s Shelty. The Shelty got loose. When my friend found the remains all that was left was the head and tail. Coyotes can be quite nasty to domestic dogs. We don’t get any venomous snakes on this side of the Cascades. Rattlesnakes are very common on the eastern slopes. Garter snakes are abundant here. My neighbor used to keep a big pile of sawdust to put in the stalls for her horses. The pile was covered with tarps. When I went over to clean the stalls one time and pulled the tarps off the pile there must have been between 30 and 50 snakes under the tarp. I am not usually bothered by snakes, but in that abundance I was more than a little shocked and put off.
As some kind of payment?
The apex predator in Arizona is the Jaguar. Right now there are three of them in Arizona. One young male was trapped and fitted with a satellite collar. He weighed in at about 118 pounds. They can reach a weight of 250 pounds.
Arizona, my home state! If the heat doesn’t kill you, the animals will!