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Live in the middle of a ten acre lot surrounded by natural woods thirty miles West of Gainseville. Had a cat hanging around here for a month or so, caught it digging a big hole under a wagon in the yard and getting into things here and there. He acted wild, very skittish and one day it got into my garage(45' X 60' steel building) and i could hear him crying after dark -- opened all the doors and he left. Now, i feed a lot of wild birds and i'm thinking the cat likes the new surroundings and good selection of food. I don't kill the critters that bother me(except armadillos) and i decide to relocate this cat. So i set my small animal trap last night close to where this cat hangs out. This morning i look out and see this cat laying dead in the yard, and the trap about ten feet away, but 60 feet from where the trap was set???
Apparently(?) this cat got caught in the trap, and then something decided it wanted the cat. The trap was pulled and dragged thru my grilling area and back out into the yard, and from the paw prints there was one heck of a struggle. Close by the trap was a big bag of potting soil and for some reason, this animal got into this potting soil and it was like ink showing it's every step. It knocked over some pretty good size 5 gallon filled buckets and paint cans. From the prints i can see that there was a big struggle. The animal trap has a typical metal plate under the handle to protect your hand, it was just crunched up like tin foil. The release interlock was all bent up and caused to be none-functionable which allowed the door to be opened. The dead cat didn't have a bite mark on it, but was dead long enough to be stiff. The paw prints are three inches in diameter:






Now, about a year ago i had a another cat living in my small boat, making a mess out of everything, and again i was going to re-locate him. Set my trap and the next morning the trap was gone?? I looked around and found it about 30 feet out into the woods away from my boat. As i approched the trap i noticed the trap was down into a newly dug hole about the size of a wheelborrow?? And the cat has beyound panic stricken!!! I checked around the hole and saw these big paw prints, and realized something was trying to eat this cat??? Two days later, as i drove down my driveway i saw a cat about the size of my dalmation dog, estimating 40 to 50 pounds. Had round ears, a long tail, taby colored and real nasty looking like fur was missing. This matches the cat my wife saw four years ago, but i had always kidded her about "right a big cat!!" ---- until i saw it. WHAT IS IT !

not a bobcat because of the heels, but I'm thinking coyote or a large fox. finger prints just don't look long enough for a coyote.


have a game camera you can set out near the trap?

*edit*
just read the text below your pictures.


Florida Panther. Report to local FWC so they can track the siting. asap.

Dog track of some breed, wild or domestic is a judgement call. Being it wasn't eaten I would say domestic.

WOW!!!

Coyete.

k9. I can't tell if it was a coyote or the local german sheapard. I can tell you coyotes are mean. I shot one in OH before basketball pratice one day and it was killing a red fox. I ultimatley had to kill the fox as well, which wouldn't have lived but was suffering horribly. Suprised you didn't hear anything; cats make some crazy noises.

My bedroom is about a hundred feet away and this house is very tight and soundproofed by the foam insulation. Looking at all the "stuff" knocked around, i told myself the same thing??? Now today, down the street about a block, i did see a sheapard running lose and actually came after my car??? But there are some coyetes around here because i am only three blocks from the river. Maybe the trapped cat started screaming and was heard by the sheapard or coyete???? My driveway is 650 foot long from the front street and i have only seen three or four dogs come thru this propery.

I don't think it is canine. Canines have exposed nails, Felines have retractable claws. Given that the animal was tracking through potting soil I would think there would be nail marks if it were canine.
My best guess from the photos, Feline and probably Florida Panther. They notoriously hate lesser cats for some reason.

FROM THE PRINTS AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDITION OF THE TRAP I WOULD SAY A FLA PANTHER OR BLACK PANTHER. THE GAME COM. TURNED SEVERAL BLACK PANTHERS LOOSE DOWN IN ST. MARKS WILDLIFE PRESERVE ABOUT 10 YRS AGO. I HAD TO KILL ONE UP HERE ON THE O. RIVER, SHE HAD KILLED SEVERAAL CALVES AND I COULD NOT AFFORD TO LET HER KILL ANYMORE. THIS BLACK PANTHER PROBABLY WEIGHED 60-70 POUNDS. AFTER I DISPOSED OF HER WE HAD NO MORE YOUNG CALVES ATTACKED.
HOPE THIS HELPS.
PA
SEMPER FI

fishinfool wrote:I don't think it is canine. Canines have exposed nails, Felines have retractable claws. Given that the animal was tracking through potting soil I would think there would be nail marks if it were canine.
My best guess from the photos, Feline and probably Florida Panther. They notoriously hate lesser cats for some reason.

The pictured paw prints were away from the attack area on my garage porch. But there were plenty of claw marks on the porch and the surrounding grass area. The porch is concrete slab, but the potting soil tracked the different areas that some serious action happened. Eventually the trap was dragged thru the 50 foot long porch and out into the grass where i found the cat's body. It was soaked and appeared to have been licked -- there were no bite marks on it?? There deffinently were exposed claws on the concrete slab paw prints and many were easily noticable that the attacker had slid sideways.

Based on evident violent struggles & strength, no doubt a Chupacabra.

Wait one... shared chupacabra before weighing a rougarou as the culprit. 50% chance a chupacabra, 50% chance a rougarou.

big bend gyrene wrote:Based on evident violent struggles & strength, no doubt a Chupacabra.

Beware the Yetti

dingo