Bobcat. Photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / AnitaE403Bobcat. Photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / AnitaE403
Sarnia

Sarnia woman reports seeing a bobcat

A Sarnia woman says she encountered a bobcat near her Cromwell Street home early Sunday morning.

Dana Laursen said she was letting the dog out around 3:30 a.m. when she spotted the predator.

"I went outside to let my dog out to use the washroom and I looked up and there was a bobcat standing in the middle of the road," said Laursen. "It was in stalking mode, it was walking very, very slowly and cautiously."

She said she grabbed her dog and ran inside the house.

"I don't know if people believe it but you have a gut feeling and I'm positive of what I saw," said Laursen. "It did not have a tail, it had thick legs, it had huge paws and it was a good probably 30 to 40-pound cat."

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski said bobcat sightings in this part of the province are extremely rare.

"We did receive a voice mail message from somebody in the Sarnia area about an unconfirmed sighting of a bobcat," said Kowalski. "We normally get maybe one to three reports a year of unconfirmed bobcat sightings."

Kowalksi said they have not confirmed this particular sighting.

"A bobcat looks somewhat like a lynx, and I suppose depending on the light that you're seeing it, you might mistake it even for potentially a large house cat," said Kowalski. "We've had some pretty interesting misidentifications before and my thought would be that it's very possibly a misidentification because bobcat sightings are so rare in southern Ontario."

Kowalski said residents can visit the ministry website for more information and tips if you should encounter a bobcat or lynx.

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