agent-maroon said:
Reminds me of the Canadian holding a lynx by the scruff of the neck and scolding it (story from Feb)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-farmer-captures-lynx-chicken-coop-1.5923089
I had always thought that wildcats were far too ferocious to even consider handling without significant protective gear. Same for domestic cats. Heavy gloves at the very least. Holding & tossing a bobcat would seem like a good way to have your face clawed off. But here we have two incidents which would indicate otherwise. Are cats reputations for ferocity far more than they deserve or is there something else going on with these stories?
I can kind of understand why he reacted the way he did. I've had a very close encounter with a mountain lion and another with a pissed off squirrel.
I've told this story on here before, but I was hunting for deer or pigs in a stand years ago. I saw what I thought was a bobcat walking through some tall grass (couldn't see the tail) in front of me. I took a shot at it with my .270. I waited a little while and then went to look for it. At the edge of the clearing I was looking into the bushes when I locked eyes with what turned out to be the mountain lion that I had just shot at. He was 5-10 feet from me staring at me. In that moment, I guess I hadn't fully processed what I was looking at, so I wasn't scared. I just pulled my rifle up and pointed it towards the lion and it turned around and ran off. My father saw the same lion the next day nearby. A month or two later his buddy saw the lion run behind my father while chasing a pig when his buddy was pulling up to my old man to pick him up after a duck hunt. This all happened 15 years or so ago and haven't seen anything more than actual bobcats out there since then.
The squirrel had been shot while hunting and had sought refuge in hole in the ground. While knelt down inspecting the hole, the squirrel came running out straight at me. Out of self defense I just reacted by grabbing it's tail. Not knowing what to do with a pissed of squirrel, I spun around in circles using centrifugal force holding the squirrel at bay. After a few seconds I thought to slam it into a tree killing it or at least knocking it unconscious long enough to finish the job. It worked.
So when you have a viscous animal that is actively trying to attack you or is in imminent danger of doing so, it can take a few seconds to process what is going on and how to handle the situation, especially if you're fighting off an attack at the same time. That dude had no idea what to do with the pissed off cat he just pulled off of his wife, but he probably didn't feel like he had a choice to do anything but that.
Also, this video is probably one of the greatest things I've ever seen just because of that guy's reactions.
One of the most ridiculous parts of this story is the guy that originally posted this on Tik Tok was banned because the video violated their violence policy.