So, what to do when you see an injured cat on the side of the road? Well, you could pick it up and take it to a vet, like an Alabama woman did. We'd recommend that you take a kitty identification course though, so you don't grab a bobcat instead of a house cat.
After all, that's what she did.
MOBILE, Ala. – A woman who helped rescue an injured cat on the roadside got a surprise when a veterinarian told her it was a wild and potentially dangerous bobcat.
Liza Eldred, her teenage daughter and the girl's friend found the female bobcat Saturday on U.S. 98 in south Baldwin County, wrapped it in a sweatshirt and drove it to an animal clinic for treatment.
Veterinarian Andy Duke said the women were "extremely lucky" that the bobcat, which had a broken paw, did not panic and injure them.
They were in "a lot of danger," Duke said.
Eldred believes the bobcat didn't harm them because it sensed they were trying to help.
"It was not moving, making a sound," she said. "It hissed once, so we stopped once so my daughter's friend could move into the (far) back seat."
One of the dangers of the "Disneyfication" of wild animals is this tendency to anthropomorphize. Eldred was extremely lucky that bobcat was injured and weak or she could very well have been in a deadly situation very quickly. Bobcats have been known to hunt deer, after all.
Side note: I happened to be sitting outside on the front step of my house watching the sunrise a few years ago. I saw something moving across the neighbor's yard and thought it was a cat. Then I realized it was a big cat. Then when it got closer, I saw it was a full-grown bobcat. It just trotted across the yard then down the hill to the road and trotted off on the shoulder, heading South. Bobcats do not move in exactly the same manner as a domestic cat, incidentally. It actually moved more like a fox than a cat.
Yep, they trot, they don’t slink. Should have been your first clue!!
And nothing about how the Animal Uprising is using faux injured animals to try and get control of human vehicles?
Heh.
They would not have been able to pick up the bobcat, had it not been injured; it would have scampered off immediately. For it to be docile enough to allow itself to be wrapped up in a sweatshirt, it probably had some internal injuries.
The reason it did not try to seize control of the car is that it was waiting to take over the entire veteranarian clinic.
Its organizing a rebellion right now among all the other animals at the vets. They’re sneaky like that.
I’ve seen more than a few bobcats in my 55 years of hunting -none mmore than when I took up the bow and learned to sit quietly. My favorite was a few years back when one sat under my tree and began preening itself just like someone’s pet.