Hello I'm new--Is that a Wildcat hybrid outside?

[chitchat]

Hi! I only recently lost my last cat to kidney failure, so for the first time in fifty years have no cat at all.

Yesterday I was sitting next to my house hanging out with the hens, when I heard an alert-- an insistent whistle which didn't let up. So I looked up and there was a cat in my pasture but I live in a rural, mountainous river valley where the neighbors are far away. Could the large gray cat with a medium-length tail be a bobcat/housecat hybrid? Her face had cheek fur. She walked near my goat barn and lay down. I say 'she' because there wasn't an overdeveloped cheek/neck appearance.

I ran for my binoculars but she was out of sight...around, as evidenced by the continued alert whistles, but she most likely was busy stalking ground squirrels. Ground squirrels have enjoyed a population boom in my yards because due to money/space issues I'm forced to feed my goats and chickens in a free-range style. The birds and squirrels get to clean up. 

These squirrels are horrible vermin which carry plague fleas and worst of all, undermine cement, create holes where horses break their legs, and so forth. A couple of months ago a cougar was near the back fence also chasing a squirrel. So I'll leave my question to you regarding the gray cat's possible heritage while I go shoot some squirrels.

 

[Norachan]

As far as I know there haven't been any confirmed bobcat/domestic cat crosses, although there are lots of stories about the two species producing kittens.

You could have seen a large domestic cat that has gone feral. Short tails do occur naturally in domestic cats. (Quite a few of my cats have short, curled tails. It's common among domestic cats in Japan as short tailed cats were favoured by the Imperial family hundreds of years ago.)

I guess you are in the US? What state do you live in? Could you have seen a bobcat?

Glad you've got some help keeping the squirrel population under control.

 

[chitchat]

Hi and thank you for your quick response! 

This cat had a medium-length tail, meaning about half the length of its back. Not short, not particularly long. It's possible it's a feral cat or even a neighbor's cat, but it looked an awful lot like a bobcat. Thus my question. Naturally I'll be looking for this cat (and the cougars) from here on out.

Cheyenne

 

[chitchat]

I'm in extreme Northern California, along the Klamath River.

 

[Norachan]

I think @segelkatt  might live quite close to you. (In the same state, anyway) They seem to be very knowledgeable  about local wildlife so may have  a better idea if what you saw really was a bob cat. I understand that living so close to that many wild animals brings it's own problems, but how exciting to have a bob cat as a neighbour!

I've seen fox, Asian raccoons, bear, wild boar, deer and monkey around here but we don't have anything like bob cats or cougars.

 

[segelkatt]

Most likely it was a bobcat. 

Southern California where I live is about 1000 miles away from the Klamath River and the climate is quite different. Here I live in a made-over desert (meaning it used to be desert, now it is covered with houses and freeways but the climate is still dry and without irrigation not much would grow) and chitchat lives where there are tall trees, abundant water and no freeways. Most of the critters that live here also live there besides those that are strictly desert dwellers like some tortoises and maybe roadrunners (yes, that really is a bird the size of a small chicken as you can see in these pictures) 

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• segelkatt
• Aug 15, 2015

  this one was having a good time on the patio of a clubhouse

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• segelkatt
• Aug 15, 2015