While brewing coffee this morning my neighbor banged on my door saying “Grab your rifle! There’s a bobcat tangled in the fence around your chickens!” 1

I love my neighbors but their solution to so, so many challenges is to “kill it.” I’d kill it if it was a threat, but I suspected not, so I picked up a 2x4, not my rifle. 2

The bobcat was just a little one, and he had somehow gotten a claw tangled in the fence. It looked like he had been struggling for awhile. A cursory head count showed that he got stuck on the way IN, not on the way OUT, and my chickens were okay for the moment. 3

What a beautiful animal he was. About the same size as Monkey, our house cat. He hissed and bared his razor sharp teeth whenever we approached, but he was stuck good. My neighbor put a shovel blade on the wire fence right next to the cat’s claw and held it down to the ground. 4

I got a pair of wire cutters on the fence and, after struggling with it for a minute, managed to cut the wire, freeing the cat. He leaped back only to get his whole body tangled in the fence again. But we lifted the wire and he fell free. He turned and ran like the wind. 5

I love my chickens, but I’d trade a dozen of them for a fantastic animal like that bobcat. The thinking out here in cow country is KILL ALL PREDATORS. This does not make for a good ecological balance. 6

Right now Monkey Ranch is overrun with ground squirrels. They actually do quite a bit of damage when there are too many of them. We’d be better off with more bobcats and fewer squirrels. 7

I’m still buzzing with adrenaline. My hands were about 6 inches away from those razor-like teeth and claws. I like to think he realized that we weren’t going to kill him after a minute working to free him. 8

Welp. Gotta fix the fence now. Everybody loves a chicken dinner. Foxes, raccoons, owls, weasels, skunks, dogs, badgers, coyotes, and BOBCATS! 9