Spunky

Spunky slipped quietly through the side door of the garage and stood there for a few seconds -- even with a full moon and frost glistening on the ground he could not see the intruder; too many trees between the house and the barn. A slight wind was coming from the South so the chickens were upwind from the bobcat who was upwind from Spunky. Spunky suddenly got a strange new scent and he instinctually knew it could be a dangerous scent! (In all the roaming he had done over the adjacent countryside he had encountered many wild animals, but had never been this close to a bobcat.) He crept stealthily toward the huge live oak tree behind the house; by staying under the trees his footsteps were noiseless by avoiding treading on the frost. He still couldn’t see what he was stalking but the scent got stronger.

Don Miller had installed a buried five hundred gallon gas tank behind the barn with an old five foot high pump sitting on a small concrete platform. Next to the gas pump he had a five hundred gallon diesel tank above ground, with a hand pump and hose mounted on top to fuel the diesel tractors with. The bobcat was crouched on the other side of the gas pump between the pump and the barn trying to figure out how to get through the wire pen to get to the chickens inside. Although the chickens had been roosting in the pen for the night, they were now awake and squawking thoroughly alarmed by the cries of the bobcat.

Now anyone who knows anything about bobcats will tell you that a bobcat is a small animal but pound for pound he is one of the most ferocious fighters in the animal kingdom. Anyone or anything that attacks him had better be prepared for a battle! Spunky managed to creep within twenty feet before the intruder realized his presence -- he charged out from behind the gas pump with a blood-curdling shriek as Spunky launched into the attack growling and barking ferociously. The savage battle only lasted a minute or so -- the horses were going crazy in their stalls on the other side of the barn and the chickens were running around in panic inside their coop. The bobcat was getting the better of the battle biting, scratching and clawing until Spunky was suddenly able to get a firm grip with his teeth on the side of the bobcat’s neck and he held on for dear life! The bobcat fell over on his side with Spunky still hanging on but in this position the bobcat was able to rip into Spunky’s chest and side with his claws. Spunky was getting the worst of the battle so he was forced to let go and when he did the bobcat beat a hasty retreat into the woods on the plantation behind the Millers property. Spunky took off in hot pursuit but discovered that one of his legs had been so badly chewed he wasn’t able to continue, so he hobbled back to the garage. By this time the Millers were awake and upon seeing what had happened tended to Spunky’s wounds and locked him in the garage until later in the morning when they could take him to Doctor Lee’s office again!