An Unusual Connection With A Bobcat

Roberta was out on a midday bike ride with Apollo.  They were about a mile and a half from camp.  It was a nice clear warm October day in Baja.  Apollo hadn’t seen any coyotes to chase so Roberta and Apollo were just cruising along enjoying the day.  All of a sudden Apollo took off like a bolt of lightening and it took a few seconds for Roberta to see what Apollo was chasing.  Much to her surprise it was a bobcat that Apollo was after!  Roberta watched for a few seconds thinking Apollo was just on a good chase with no chance of catching the bobcat but she soon realized Apollo was gaining on it real quick.  Then all of a sudden Apollo caught up with the bobcat and rolled it over under him with the bobcat upside down looking up at Apollo and Apollo was straddling the bobcat looking down at it.  The Roberta screamed at the top of her voice, NO APOLLO NO!!!  This was a very interesting moment between Apollo and the bobcat.  For neither of them made an aggressive move towards each other, they just stared at each other for a moment, then the bobcat slowly took it’s front paw and slowly pawed at Apollo, not aggressively but more as if to express a (Wow, that was a pretty darn good chase there pal, I’ve never been tackled before). Then slowly Apollo stepped off the bobcat.  

What was really interesting is Apollo made no aggressive move at the bobcat either, after he caught it and the bobcat could have easily disemboweled Apollo with it’s claws.  So Apollo slowly stepped back and the bobcat rolled up on it’s feet and Roberta called for Apollo and both the bobcat and Apollo went their separate ways.  To this day it sill intrigues me as to why the bobcat and Apollo took that passive connection while they were just starring at each other.