Bobcat?

[potknot]

My parents had a dog runaway and not come back. While out looking for the dog. and came across about a 1 1/2" dia tree that was completely shredded up Aprox. 3ft up the tree. i looked up the tracks online and they appear to be a bobcat. and smaller tracks of the same apperance possibably a very young bobcat.

Two questions. Is the tree shredded from a bobcat? Would a Bobcat attack a dog if the dog was roaming around in the woods?

i also have pics of the tree i can post later today. any help would be great. the Dog is a 60-75pound stocky house dog English bulldog. Here is the pic of the smaller track of the same variety

[nolte]

That's a cat for sure. Without seeing the other track and sizes, there are two likely scenarios. A female being followed by a tom since this is their breeding season. Or a female and a kitten.

In either case with your dog, it's highly unlikely that either cat would attack the dog. They generally are very seclusive and avoid all confrontations. If by some weird coincidence the cat and dog did get into a scuffle, the only thing to be concerned about it infection. A cat's claws/bites tend to have bacteria and generally cause an infection in dogs.

[Trany]

I would say mom and kit, nice picture, if you come across one again, snap it with something to scale, I have been studying some Tom Brown tracking books and scale could help. I doubt too that the dog is in trouble with the cats, but skunks are another story. Cool pic.

[potknot]

Thanks a lot for the confirmation! That’s what it looked like to me that it was a female and a kitten. Because there were spots where the smaller track was inside the larger track. The larger track took up approximately 1.5" square and the smaller track roughly half of that. I’m trying to learn more about Bobcats now that I know there are 2 around my parents place in sty. cloud. We put a trail camera out tonight to see if we can see it on there. I will post pics if we get any