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Show Quality German Shepherds for Family Protection, Personal Security, Schutzhund, Search & Rescue, Guard Dogs, Seeing Eye Dogs, Professional Dog Training, Stud Service and Pet Quality K-9 friends from Montana at affordable prices.

OMEGA SHEPHERDS
Adventures on the Ranch

Scarlett the Bobcat
Living with a 40-pound cat in the house!

-----Scarlett O'Hara -- whom we call Scarlett - is my pet bobcat. I got her as a cute little 5-week-old kitten from some people that raise them for pets (it is illegal to take them from the wild). I bottle-fed her for a while which was fun till she started eating the bottles! Time to advance to real food! One interesting thing about Bobcat kittens that are bottle-fed is they suck on each others tails, because they don't get enough nursing time. So when I got her - her stubby little tail was hairless! See the picture.
----She eats Iams Cat Food, and she LOVES milk. I have finally learned NOT to carry milk around with her loose, she will leap up at the bowl and hit it with her very powerful paw and send milk everywhere. After cleaning up milk off of people, chairs, couches, pictures and the carpet I have finally learned! She spends a lot of time in the house and gets along great with the dogs, and she also has a big exercise pen outside - which she enjoys. But is quick to beg to come back in when it gets cold!
----Scarlett is actually very unusual for a bobcat - I have talked to many cat trainers and they all say Bobcats are the hardest cats to train. But I have trained her to come, sit, down, stay, go from one place to another, jump through a hoop, jump from one pedestal to another, crawl and roll over and she leads.... pretty well for a cat! And for the most part she is very well mannered - though she does have her occasional Bobcat moods! Where she THINKS the world should revolve around her, she soon remembers it doesn't and fits back into the "Pack".
-----Scarlett is 7 1/2 years old now and weighs about 40 pounds. Many people ask, "Does she bite?" She does not go around biting people (especially me) but she is still essentially a wild animal and you have to know how to handle them. You don't treat them like they are just a good old house cat, you have to read their moods and know how to deal with them. I really enjoy her as a pet but they are definitely not an animal I would recommend for most people. And I tell people that see her, she is not a normal bobcat. Most are very very hard to be around and some can be downright mean (we had one awhile ago but that is another story for another day!).
----I often take Scarlett to town with us to socialize her, people come from all over to see her. One time I took her to the airport when we were shipping a puppy. There are two levels to the airport and people on the lower level all came around in a big group asking tons of questions and people on the second level were hanging over the railing trying to get a better look! Hum….. I know how the stars feel now! -Another time I took her into Shop Ko - because they allow pets - we went around the store with her in the shopping cart! The looks on peoples faces as we went walking by with a huge cat in a shopping cart was pretty fun!
----We have a big cage that separates the living room and the cage is behind the couch. The cage is for her if she needs a time out - but she has caught many unsuspecting people in there! Well, she doesn't really catch them in the cage - but she LOVES to reach her giant paw through the top of the cage, over the couch and grab your hair when your watching TV. It can give you quite a scare if you forget she's in there and it happens in the part of the movie when you know something is going to happen…… but you don't know what ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----And finally, she likes to play in the water and LOVES soap. She is actually crazy about it - she will grab the soap bar and roll around on it and carry it around - and NO ONE takes it away from her. Now I try to get the soap bars up before she gets to them because she will roll on it so long it matts her fur.
----Well, that's just life with a big cat in the house.
----Till next week!
----Leah and Everyone at Omega Shepherds

Scarlett at 7 years old

Leah and Scarlett and 6 weeks

"If she would just take this lead off I could climb to the top!".....right.

Scarlett at about 5 months

She loved to climb on top of our Macaws cage, amazingly Max never got upset about it!

Scarlett at about 6 momths - She LOVES to "take a bath" -- and she is crazy about soap !