This is an example of how a large house cat can be mistaken for a medium-sized wild cat such as the American bobcat. In this instance I’m referring to a twenty-seven pound Maine Coon cat called Spock. They say he is no ordinary house cat and that when you pick him up you have to have a strong back! However, for a Maine Coon cat he is not that unusual although he is at the top end of size for this cat breed which is the largest cat breed in the world excepting wild cat hybrids.
Spock likes to sit at the window in his home in San Jose, California. The trouble is that sometimes Animal Control gets called to his home because people get freaked out when they walk past the house and see him in the window believing that the owner and occupier of the house is living with a wild cat. Perhaps they believe something illegal is occurring and the neighbourhood is being endangered. It is amusing but there is serious aspect to it. Some people like to shoot wild cats and he got out…..
Colleen Pizarev is Spock’s human caretaker. Apparently, she has been approached on several occasions by people claiming that she’s got a wild cat living with her, so says her neighbour Terry Reilley.
In addition to being a very large domestic cat together with the specified problem which that brings to his owner, Spock is an intelligent cat who likes to do his own thing which is to open doors (see video), watch videos and to inadvertently break everything that happens to be in his path.
Colleen has “Spock-proofed” the home; she has stuck ornaments down with earthquake putty!
For the record, we can see that Spock is a classic, brown tabby Maine Coon with a bit of white on his face. No doubt, the tabby coat is a major reason why he gets mistaken for a bobcat because, after all, if he had almost any other coat type such as black or white he would not be in this position and neither would his owner. The Maine Coon has a mane of sorts (a ruff) and the bobcat has something similar. The bobcat weighs between nine and forty pounds so the Spock is definitely big enough to be mistaken for a bobcat.
Not infrequently we received reports of people spotting wild cats roaming around their backyard or nearby and I think we have to say that on some occasions, at least, they are mistaking a large domestic cat for a wild one.
Source: AC7News
Humankind can sometimes show its ignorance and fear. This is one such occasion. I think when people are frightened of wild animals because they are inherently frightened people; this colours their viewpoint and it colours what they see so they start thinking slightly irrationally.