Unbelievable: my cat was playing with a real live bobcat!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

For several years, we have had bobcats come walking by our back patio and side windows. The often stop and peer in at us, probably amazed at the big den the humans have. :smiley:

They usually walk on before I can get my camera. We think they come for the water in our backyard pond, but maybe they are just curious. Anyway, although our cats get all excited when they see birds or lizards out there, they have never been in the living room when the bobcats come by.

Yesterday afternoon I was in another room and heard our cat Mehta meowing up a storm. As he almost never makes any noise at all, I went in to see what was wrong.

There he was on the table, getting all excited and playful as was the bobcat outside. They kept this up even after my wife and I both came in and I started taking pictures. We went right up to the window, and ol’ Bob just stayed there, fascinated by our cat, and quite playful.

We went and got our other spotted Bengal cat, Zubin, put him on the table, and he just yawned and walked away. Stupid cat.

As you can see from the expression on the bobcat’s face, he is not in a fierce or “eat the cat” mode at all, just sort of quizzical and playful. As everybody knows here, you never let your cats outdoors, or they will soon be lunch for the bobcats, coyotes and other critters.

Evidently this is a juvenile bobcat, so guess his mother had not yet taught him that cats are for eating, not playing with.

It was a wonderful thing to watch. Eventually Bob got tired of it all and wandered away.

You can see them here

2

Great pictures. KlondikeGeoff! People talk about house cat and bobcats crossbreeding, does anybody know if that really happens?

3

sigh Not my day for proper punctuation or proper Dope etiquette, apparently.

Great pictures,** KlondikeGeoff**!

4

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Awesoe photos. A couple of them you can’t really see the window and it looks like the bobcat is right in front of your cat.

How cool.

5

Very cool. I hear bobcat’s good eatin’ too.

:smiley:

6

Extraordinary pictures, Klondike.
I’m very impressed!

7

Awesome! :cool:

8

Who needs Mutual of Omaha when we have Klondike Geoff and his pack of kitties?
Awesomely cool.

As for the interbreeding: Ocicat .

9

Can domestic cats and bobcats interbreed? 'Cause those would be some… interesting… kittens. :slight_smile:

10

Dude, I think you’ve found your new hobby - GeoffsAmazingAnimalPictures.com :slight_smile:

I didn’t realize bobcats look so “kitty-like.” Great catch!

11

That is unbelievably cool!

12

My grade school teacher said they had bobcats on thier land. One time thier female house cat was in heat and managed to escape outside. She was gone for a while and they thought she died. But the cat came back. :wink: She had a litter of four, two of which had short tails, spots, and a sixth claw in the crook of the thumb. I have seen a few cats with the sixth claw since then, they seemed a lot larger and more muscular than most cats. However I’ve never seen the bobbed tail. So, all I’ve got for an answer is, I think they can breed together, but I have no proof. :smiley:

I’m so helpfull, I know. :rolleyes:

13

You get to have bobcats and cactus? No fair.

My first cat was named Bob so we called him… eh, you get it. Our last cat was half Persian, half Manx and all athlete. Man, could that guy jump!

Vey nice, Geoff.

14

It does happen, sometimes on purpose and sometimes by casual acquaintance. In north georgia and tennessee, you can get a bobcat/domestic cat cross pretty easily though intentional breeding was made illegal in georgia a couple of years ago, under a law meant to deal with wolf/dog interbreeding as I recall.

The most popular intentional cross was a manx/bobcat cross called a bomax I think. The most popular accidental cross is whatever domestic cat is in heat at the moment; young boy bobcats are not picky.

I had a manx/bobcat cross, he was a great cat.

An ocicat is a breed of domestic cat, its spots are really broken tabby stripes. A bengal involves a cross between an asian leopard cat and a domestic cat, though the domestic bengal cats usually have not seen any wild blood in four generations and in subsequent generations the spots are enhanced by the same techniques used to get broken tabby stripes in the ocicat – which is a good thing. The Asian leopard cat does not have a promising temperament for a companion animal, while the bobcat does.

One hears stories about bobcats acting as companion animals in the same area also, though how accurate they are is always hard to tell.

15

Yup, bobcats and domestic cats can interbreed; in fact, this is done intentionally for people that want an exotic pet, but not too exotic. Actress Kim Catrall has one; I saw her on Letterman a couple of years ago, and she talked about him (her?). Thing is, though, she mentioned that her kitty was much tougher and strong-willed than an ordinary cat (in addition to being physically larger). If you aren’t up to an animal like that, such hybrids aren’t for you. In your case, interbreeding is unlikely, especially since your cat is male (when wild animals interbreed with domestic animals, it’s nearly always a wild male with a domestic female). Of course, there’s no issue if your cat is fixed.

Awesome pics, btw…

16

Super cool pics, Geoff. FWIW, the bobcat is definitely a juvenile.

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Right, Marienee, we’ve seen F1-F3 (the first three “foundation” cat generations that are offspring from breeding with the Asian Leopard Cat), and while beautiful, they are definitely not domesticated!

Both our guys are Bengals, one spotted and the other, in the pictures, is called “marbled.” Like all Bengals, however, he has spots on his tummy, all black pads on his paws, and a black tip to his tail. Both these cats are only five generations away from the wild cats. They are tame enough, but decidedly different. Good different. :smiley:

18

Are the resulting bobkitties capable of breeding, or are they sterile like mules?

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They can be and are bred.

20

I was involved with a fellow who bred them once. I like the marbles, myself, I am glad the controversy over allowing them in the breed died away. I also liked the blues a lot, which battle I hear is still ongoing. They are nice cats.