A spry 90-year-old grandmother from Maine grabbed a wild bobcat by the tail and head recently to separate the animal's mouth from her beloved calico's head.  `When you've lived with a cat for 20 years, it becomes part of your family, part of your life, so I didn't hesitate a bit to grab that bobcat,'' said Mildred Luce of Wyman Township. Luce, who has lived alone since her husband died in 1988, has seen bears and other animals in her yard. ``It's modified wilderness out here, so you'd expect that, but I never saw a bobcat until then,'' she said. Without Luce's intervention March 18, the cat, named Smudge, would have probably met the same fate as Foxy, Luce's tiger cat. Foxy, a 6-year-old, was attacked the previous night and died two days later. Luce said she heard a noise near her front door, went outside and saw the bobcat with Smudge's head inside its mouth. ``I grabbed it by the head and tail and pulled. It let go, and Smudge bit the bobcat and ran inside the house,'' Luce said. | "Paws, don't fail me now!" |
The bobcat followed Smudge inside, going room to room looking for the cat. Luce trapped the bobcat in the bathroom. Smudge is recovering. Animal control workers killed the bobcat, and tests for rabies were negative. | It's the only picture we have of a "cat fight", so sue me. |
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