Here kitty, kitty…
By Carin R. Kirkegaard; photo courtesy of Lori Dishneau
Pictures of bobcats passing through yards and sunning on decks have been filling the social media pages of many community neighbors the past few weeks. It is uncertain how many bobcats are actually out roaming the neighborhoods, but there have been photos with anywhere from one single bobcat to a group of more than five.
Lori Dishneau whose home backs to scrub oak in the Buffalo Estates neighborhood of the City of Castle Pines happened to catch a pair of kittens with her lens last August. Dishneau has a large pine tree in her backyard where she hangs birdfeeders. To avoid attracting hungry bears, she brings the feeders in each night.
It was the next morning as she was putting them back that she saw a scuffle out of the corner of her eye. At first Dishneau thought it was a couple of squirrels running up the tree, but when she looked closer she saw two cats. She immediately assumed they were a pair of feral cats that had been dumped in the open space behind her house. Feeling sorry for what she thought were abandoned cats, she went inside to get some milk and food to coax them down from the tree. Her husband went out to look too and started laughing when he discovered that they were indeed a pair of wildcats – not exactly the kind you want to lure down with milk. Dishneau grabbed her camera and snapped a couple of photos before retreating into the house to watch what would happen next.
Dishneau said it took about 10 minutes before the momma came looking for her babies. “They scrambled down the tree and bounced along behind her, following her back into the scrub oak,” she continued.
The Dishneau’s have lived in the community for 13 years, and with a home office complete with picture windows facing the open space to the back, they feel fortunate to witness the many species of wildlife that call Castle Pines home too.
To learn more about wildlife in Colorado visit, the Colorado Division of Wildlife website at https://cpw.state.co.us.
