CATFIGHT! CATFIGHT!

April 19, 2005 10:13 AM

Old lady versus bobcat. Old lady wins. Don't mess with Maine's rural elderly-- Mildred's a badass.
posted by Mayor Curley (21 comments total)

The creature was snared while hiding behind the shower curtain.


Isn't that a major plot line in horror movies?
posted by debralee at 10:19 AM on April 19, 2005

I agree Mayor Curley. Having spent much time along the Maine coast, I have met MANY tough as nails Maine seniors. In addition to outsized human strength and endurance, they seem to also have built-in BS detectors.
posted by R. Mutt at 10:30 AM on April 19, 2005

This is exactly why we need tougher snow shovel control and registration laws. What about the rights of that poor bobcat to a free lunch? It had spent it's entire life in the wild, and now it can't even afford to have a singular privileged liberty. It goes without mentioning that it of course, has no health care insurance either.
Bobcats are also almost endangered! This lady needs to be governed by more laws before she infringes on the rights of others again. Damn you Bush and your ownership society!
posted by buzzman at 10:40 AM on April 19, 2005

Ha ha ha--good one, buzzman!

And was that a registered snow shovel?
posted by Asparagirl at 10:57 AM on April 19, 2005

They killed a bobcat to test it for rabies. Something just isn't adding up there. "Oh, this animal didn't have rabies, it wasn't really much of a threat afterall."
posted by gunthersghost at 11:04 AM on April 19, 2005

Bob the cat dropped his(her) mouse when I was coming down the trail one slay-the-beasts-of-Satan season. (Ya know, cloven hoofed critters with horns on their head....HORNS!)
posted by rough ashlar at 11:05 AM on April 19, 2005

Yeah, kind of sad that the bobcat ended up getting killed. But woo! go old lady!

As an aside, this sentence really bugs me: "The difference between a bobcat and a lynx in winter is like a man walking in snow without snowshoes." he said.

"The difference between a banana and an orange is like a fruit without seeds." Hmph.
posted by Specklet at 11:13 AM on April 19, 2005

Yeah, kind of sad that the bobcat ended up getting killed. But woo! go old lady!

As an aside, this sentence really bugs me: "The difference between a bobcat and a lynx in winter is like a man walking in snow without snowshoes." he said. "The difference between a banana and an orange is like a fruit without seeds."

Hmph.
posted by Specklet at 11:14 AM on April 19, 2005

Whoops. Screen glitch, sorry.
posted by Specklet at 11:14 AM on April 19, 2005

"killed so it could be tested for rabies" Heaven forbid they aneasthatize anesthetise anaesthetize sleepify the thing and take a blood sample...

My guess is that this is misreporting and it was killed because it was unafraid to go into town and chew on old folks pussies.

Theres a Mrs Slocombe joke in there somewhere, but I'm to lethargic to dig it all out.
posted by BadSeamus at 11:58 AM on April 19, 2005

gunthersghost and BadSeamus, they have to kill the animals to test for rabies. The virus is in the brain, like madcow, and in wild animals there's no other practical way to detect it. It's standard (though still sad).
posted by dness2 at 12:05 PM on April 19, 2005

I used to work in a medical laboratory and there was no blood test for rabies. The specimen requirement was 1/2 brain when I last checked.
posted by asianvikinggirl at 12:07 PM on April 19, 2005

How do you test for rabies and why can’t it be done on a live animal?
Rabies is an unusual virus because it never enters the blood stream. Rabies travels along the nerves from the site of infection, the bite, into the brain, and then concentrates in the salivary glands. This brain infection is why you see unusual behavior in rabid animals. This method of travel makes rabies undetectable in a live animal because rabies is diagnosed by examining the brain microscopically and immunohistochemically (using rabies antibody) to demonstrate the presence of the virus.
posted by dness2 at 12:14 PM on April 19, 2005

...and then concentrates in the salivary glands

Wait... can't they take a spit sample and PCR for rabies virus in it? I guess the infection would have to be pretty far along to detect it - but then PCR can amplify DNA trillions of times (but too much amplification introduces higher chances of false positives)
posted by PurplePorpoise at 12:18 PM on April 19, 2005

This story reminds me of an incident that occurred out in Glacier National Park a few years back when an older couple was attacked by a grizzly bear. They played dead but when the bear started to drag off her husband the old lady got up and swung her binoculars into the grizzly's nose. For some reason, rather than killing both of them, the bear just looked startled and then walked away. The husband was saved. It happened about a week after I visited the park. There were several minor bear encounters while I was there but nothing like what that couple endured.
posted by caddis at 1:39 PM on April 19, 2005

"I kept calling him and when he came out crawling, we saw he had been chewed up pretty bad and was in a lot of pain," she said.

Poor Foxy! Nobody deserves to be chewed on by a bobcat.
posted by dammitjim at 2:46 PM on April 19, 2005

Go Mainers! I'm so happy to now be among your vaulted ranks. FYI, Wyman, ME is located near Misery, location of the same-named Steven King novel.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:28 PM on April 19, 2005

And Skowhegan, ME (in addition to being the location of the world's best art school camp) was/is "home" to a Darwin Award Winner... who will not fight off animals in his old age...

"He really got caught up in his work."
(01 March 2000, Maine) The owner of the Carrier Chipping Company inadvertently reproduced the chilling climactic scene in the movie Fargo, and was rent asunder by his own wood chipper.
posted by R. Mutt at 3:42 PM on April 19, 2005

Bobcats weigh an average of 25-35 pounds. A human armed with a metal shovel beat one in a fight? Big freaking deal.
posted by fshgrl at 7:17 PM on April 19, 2005

That should read 15-25 pounds, on average. Some big males might be 30+ pounds.
posted by fshgrl at 7:23 PM on April 19, 2005

gunthersghost and BadSeamus, they have to kill the animals to test for rabies. The virus is in the brain, like madcow, and in wild animals there's no other practical way to detect it. It's standard (though still sad).

Makes sense. The UK 6 month quarantine laws wouldnt exist if there was a blood test I suppose. Learn something every day...
posted by BadSeamus at 9:34 PM on April 19, 2005