Strange Cat in NE OK?

Greetings ATS.

I could use a little help here.

Over the past few weeks, something has been catching (and presumably eating) my chickens. The ones who were dumb enough to wander out in the woods are long gone ... I was down to just a few who stayed pretty close to the house. Then, twice in the past 10 days or so, something has taken a chicken right in the front yard, not 50 feet from the house. I could tell because of the piles of feathers.

Day before yesterday I asked my husband to put the game camera up in the front yard pointed right at the area where both of the recent chicken snatches occurred. We left it for about 36 hours and pulled the card this afternoon. Only one picture contained something that we aren't able to decide what it is.

Now, we do have one adult cat, but it's a very small cat and it is a dark colored tabby with obvious black stripes. There is also another cat that comes around but it's very fluffy and gray and white. To us, the game cam picture looks like a cat, but not like any cat we've seen around here. I welcome any analysis or opinions as to what it is. My guess is that this is what has been taking my chickens...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fdb811bb42a6.jpg[/atsimg]

Due to the fact that no cars are present in the picture, it had to have been taken this morning between 7am (when my husband left in the Blazer) and 9:15am when I arrived home in my Aveo from working an overnight shift.

I live in Northeast Oklahoma in a very rural area on a gravel road. Behind my land (10 acres) there are about 360 acres which are not used for anything and are just "wild." I know that I have opossums, armadillos, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, deer, and wild turkey on my land, but the animal in the photo doesn't look to me like any of the above.

Your opinions appreciated.

i know the area very well

i bet it is a big cat of some kind

It's hard to tell for sure, without it being closer, it looks like a small cougar.

www.totalwildlifecontrol.com...

Well, small cougar is what we were kind of thinking, but there aren't supposed to BE any cougars in this area.

By the way, here's a picture of my cat for comparison purposes.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e0210a3c180a.jpg[/atsimg]

Maybe fill some stockings with dog hair, hang em' around the coop.
If ye can get some lion dung or hyena hormones even better.

Looks like a regular overweight house cat to me.

To me it looks like a young cougar! Notice the way it carries itself, color and tail. Contact your local game warden and see what he/she advises.

reply to post by hhott

Well, small cougar is what we were kind of thinking, but there aren't supposed to BE any cougars in this area.

I'll bet no one told that to the little cougar in your yard

The body shape is right, both the tail, and the hip area.

Bobcat? Widcat? Mountain lions have been potted in your state.

www.thejump.net.../archives/16-TWO-MOUNTAIN-LIONS-CONFIRMED-IN-WESTERN-OKLAHOMA.html

he push East continues. On October 29, 2005, Ron Mills, the manager of Black Mesa State Park, encountered two mountain lions traveling together in the park. They were apparently stalking several deer that were bedded near the residence. The larger cat went into the brush before Mr. Mills was able to get a photo, but he was able to get a good photograph of the second smaller cat as it walked away (see below). He later confirmed tracks made by the larger animal. Ron has been the park's manager since 2003.

Sorry to hear about your chickens, hope you can trap whatever this mystery feline is.

The tail looks longer than a house cat. I bet it's a young cougar(mountain lion)

Originally posted by hhott
Well, small cougar is what we were kind of thinking, but there aren't supposed to BE any cougars in this area.

By the way, here's a picture of my cat for comparison purposes.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/24da8d652f92.jpg[/atsimg]

Aren't suppose to be any cougars in extreme North East Texas but we've all seen one in our immediate area. Believe me, cougars are around.

reply to post by hhott


Looks like a cougar to me. It happens. They found piranha at Osage Beach in Missouri. The found a Bull Shark in Grand Lake. They even thought they found an extinct Woodpecker on the Missouri/Ark border.

It could be an escaped pet. There is a big cat refuge just across the border near War Eagle, AR.

In my experience, it has always been raccoons getting my chickens, but that photo sure isn't a raccoon!

reply to post by imasecretspy


i have to agree. i dont see anything out of the ordinary about this cat.

At first, I thought it was a stray Siamese cat, or similar breed. However, after looking at the photo more, and doing some Google image searches, I would vote it was a young mountain lion or young cougar. If you look at the photo in the referenced page, I would say it looks very similar to your photo.

www.westofthei.com...

I have to disagree with most of the posts here. I believe that the light is playing tricks here. That is your cat. Look at the rings in the tail and the black marking on the front leg. Cougars do not have ringed tails. I think the sunlight is putting a glare on its face.

I think you have a big Tom Cat here, in searching for
his mate he has run across your chickens. Sorry
about that. BTW have you heard any howling at
night?

A similar experience happened to my 5th grade girlfriend (though with bunnies) - the conspiracy of it all drove us further and further apart, until one day, that is all she saw.

Like others have said, I bet it is some sort of wild breed. Another possibility could be if someone thought it would be fun to have an "exotic" cat, and the owner realized that either it was too much work or it outsmarted the owner (probably drank too much city-fied water and dumbed the owner down) and escaped.

Or, you may have a chupacabra on your hands.

Time to step up your defenses.

To everyone who has replied, thank you! I appreciate your time and interest, regardless of your opinion.

It is possible that it could be a feral housecat, but if so then it most likely isn't what's taking my chickens, as one of them was my large dominant rooster who had spurs and regularly chased the cat that lives here.

Also, if it's a feral cat it's uncannily shy. There have been a couple of feral cats around. One is extremely shy although I've seen it many times (the fluffy gray and white one); the other wasn't shy enough and is now deceased.

I want to say that I don't think there could be another domestic cat around that I haven't seen, even if it is feral. I have seen almost everything else that is around, including a couple of bobcats and many deer. I have inside and outside dogs, and large front windows. If anything is within sight, smell, or dog hearing of the house, some canine is going to notice it and alert me - this is how I have seen the other feral cats and even the coyotes.

That is another point: the cat in the game cam picture is not afraid of barking dogs, as its location puts it in visibility range of both the inside and outside dogs.

It is also possible that the sunlight angle has washed out the picture and it's just "my" cat, but we tried as best we could to go outside and measure from where the front feet to the hind feet were, and it seems to be at least 9 or 10 inches longer than my cat (minus tail).

We will set the cam back up and hope for more pictures tomorrow while both of us are at work and hopefully one will either be clearer or enable us to better estimate the animal's size.

Yes, we have heard howling at night but that is a whole different story. My husband has several times heard strange calls at night from inside the house that put the hairs up on the back of his neck. A few days ago I played a compendium of "bigfoot" calls for him and he swears that one of the sets of calls matches exactly what he heard. Yes, I know that's not a bigfoot in the picture, and also we both know what tomcats sound like and haven't heard any of that. I can't imagine that there are bigfoot around here, there are too many houses ... but hubby has lived in the country before and knows what wolves, coyotes, bobcats, and many other animals sound like, and he says this was something quite different.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Bobcat - Domestic Mix.

Or a really large house cat.

One of the downsides of ATS is most people here tend to look way to far out of the box, even when the truth is staring them right in the face.

That is your cat, no doubt about it. If you want proof, put your kitty in the same spot and take a picture from the same distance. I guarantee it will be the same. I can tell from the exact facial structure and stripped tail, plus the fact that it is nowhere near the size of a cougar/puma/mountain lion/bobcat etc, nor does it even look like any of those creatures at all. It looks big compared to the truck in the distance, but... camera tricks. Unless you haver super tall grass, there's no way that little kitty is more than 1 ft tall.

However I have no idea what could be eating your chickens. There are no wolves in OK and mountain lions are rare. Maybe Bigfoot got tired of being a vegetarian?