Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Cat Country

It seems the homestead has become cat country! Sunday afternoon my mil saw a bobcat at the neighbors pond and Monday about 9:30am I walked past my back door and saw a mountain lion creeping towards the goat pen! I got my boots on and ran outside, about halfway to the pen I thought about my situation so I walked slowly to the compost bin grabbed a shovel and walked with very shaky legs around the barn. Luckily the big cat had left, most likely when I opened the door and screamed at my two little dogs to stay put. What's crazy is the Oklahoma Wildlife dept. people say we don't have mountain lions in OK and there has only been a couple confirmed mountain lion sightings. Ha! The reason they say this is because if you do kill a mountain lion you have to call them and they take the body and I'm sure they would act like you did something wrong. Well last year my neighbor two houses down on the west side of us had chickens killed by a mountain lion. Three months ago my neighbor two houses to the east of us came down to tell us their dog scared a mountain lion out of their backyard, it was after a rooster. The man that owns all the woods behind us has killed three,  and clearly didn't report it. A man that lives about a block away killed one several years ago, it killed his 70lb lab. It took him two weeks to lure the lion close to the back of his house but he got it and it's hide and head are mounted on his wall, clearly not reported to the Wildlife people. My in-laws have them on their land too, I've seen the prints next to one of their ponds. So now you know, Oklahoma does have mountain lions and if mine comes back I won't have a shovel in my hand and hopefully I will have something to not report and mount on my wall ☺

Side note:   I know a shovel was a stupid weapon but the shop was locked and that's where the shotgun was. I was trying to protect my goats and lost my wits. It's not everyday you see a mountain lion heading towards your barn!!! I now have a gun (powerful enough to kill the lion) sitting at the back door during the day while the kids are at school. If it does come back, I'm ready ☺

I wonder what I will see next a bear? or maybe Bigfoot?