A Feline Visitor in the Yard

I got back home yesterday evening from a two-week private tour to Peru, and I do hope to blog about that in the upcoming days. But I had to share today’s exciting encounter: This lovely Bobcat in our Tucson yard.

 I rent a guesthouse from Paul and Irene, and we share a largish backyard. Early this morning (still waking up at dawn according to Peru time) I noticed that the chicken coop door had been left open all night, and that there was one chicken still inside. Normally, when the door is accidentally left open (which over the past couple of years hasn’t been all that rare of an event), all four chickens come out to forage in the yard quite early. I soon found out that this reduction in numbers didn’t just happen sometime in the past couple of weeks while I was in Peru. This was news. Last night we had a visitor.

Later this morning, Einstein, their soft-coated wheaten terrier, found the cat behind the fence about to start dining on the barred rock. I don’t know whether that one was Gina, Lola, Brigida, or the fourth chicken whose name I can’t remember. The other two bodies have yet to be found, and the Rhode Island Red is the only remaining bird.

Paul came to tell me about the cat, and I ran out in time to glimpse its shadow as it walked on roof of the garage, which is covered in overhanging mesquite branches. Standing on the stack of cinder blocks I was able to peer over the edge and get this photo as it sat in an otherwise perfect hiding spot. It seemed quite calm even though I was only about 8 feet away.