Books and Bobcats
The Kids Get A Rare Sighting
The girls come screaming back into the library, wide eyed, out of breath.
“Oh my God!” they’re saying over and over.
“Whoa ladies, what’s up?”
“We were almost eaten by a bobcat! It was stalking us!”
They’re faces are flushed, excitement palpable.
Most of the adults around them laugh, assuming they saw somebody’s wayward cat or maybe a hedge hog. But I know better. A bobcat does indeed live behind the library. I took a pic of him!
Just another strange and glorious moment for a couple kids, wholly separate from our reputation as a dusty book warehouse.
The girls go on and on, this core memory driving itself deeper and deeper into their psyches.
They were out by the pavilion and they came around the corner of the story trail and there it was, and they thought it was a cat at first, but it was much bigger and it was looking right at them and they swore it looked hungry and they had snacks after all so no doubt they were just inches away from being bobcat food!
They ran back to tell their harrowing tale.
The idea that our little library will, for them, forever be associated with a bobcat sighting; that this strange, lovely detail may follow then throughout their lives, is endlessly appealing to me.
I recall a canoe trip I took as a scout, and seeing a distant bear paddling through the water. I think about that trip Little Bean and I took to the beach of a small state park right at the beginning of the season, where she reached her hands into a tiny pond and came up with a handful of sand shrimp.
Neither of us would be able to to tell you much about the actual trips. But those moments stick forever.
Later, one of the kid’s dads stops in to pick them up and I tell him they are out back in the park.
“Careful though,” I say, “they might be riding bobcats.”
He nods in that dad way, surprised by nothing anymore.
“I’ll keep my eyes open,” he says.
We have more than books here. We have bobcats.
Love seeing wildlife in their element. Just beware of turkeys. My car was threatened. The turkey stood right in the road as a stand off (saw his reflection) and would not let me go by. I moved the car to the left and he went to the left. Finally I edged forward and was right beside my window looking at me all revved up. It actually went on for at least 10 minutes.
I LOVE that they saw the bobcat and of course, realized what it was! Shame on the adults, aside from you of course, that didn't credit them for knowing the difference between a bobcat and a cat!