Day of the Cats

Talk about a flashback yesterday to the "Lord of the Rings" marathon this past Sunday, I had to ask myself if I was dreaming. This must be what Park staff meant in a brief meeting early Monday by "enter at your own risk!" Today the road at the entrance of the tunnel was lined with fifty pound chunks of ice which had fallen from the ledge above. Can you imagine what these would do to a windshield (& the driver)? The Park is expecting sleet changing to rain tonight with the possibility of 2". This event coupled with last Saturday's 6" of snow accumulation will probably result in some flooding. In my career, I never thought I would state this: We need rain so the contractor can go back to work! Rain should melt the snow to give the crew an opportunity to pick up where they left off last Friday. Long term forecast? Snow Saturday and Sunday. More snow probable next week. Loose ends remain that have to be tied up before the winter shutdown. We have to catch the windows of opportunity.

Tuesday has been the "Day of the Cats". Just recently I commented that I had not seen any bobcats or coyotes in SNP. During the early morning drive I encountered a small bobcat on Skyline Drive that jumped up on the cultural stone wall to take a quick look back. It disappeared in a split second. During lunch I noticed another cat near Big Meadows on "the Line". Camera ready, this one turned out to be a feral house cat. I abandoned the photo attempt thinking it was a "left behind" from last fall at "tent city". Then, it disappeared just as quickly as the bobcat. I've seen plenty of these around home. Several years past my wife was feeding (18) barn cats so wild that I had to catch them in a dip net and hold them with welding gloves for the vet to give their annual vaccinations. I've still got scars to prove it! During the early 90s, a "varmint" was getting into the trash can. By the teeth marks I expected a large racoon. The Hav-a-hart live trap revealed the meanest, loudest screaming, and foul smelling black feral tomcat in the world. It truly weighed about 15 pounds. I promptly transplanted him to Bayou Liberty Swamp in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, where it probably is living out (9) lives even today. Back to lunch time, on the drive back through I noticed the feral cat again and managed to get a "mugshot." Feral cats have been determined in studies across the globe to cause extremely negative impacts to environmentally sensitive ecosystems such as Shenandoah NP. Feral cats are very efficient predators and do not occupy a niche in the environment. They will adversely affect the food web through competition with indigenous raptors, and mammalian and reptilian carnivores. I plan to forward the photo to Park biologists. Ironically, a fawn whitetail was browsing on the right-of-way early this morning with its right ear in shreds. Cats usually attack their prey in the region of the head. Canines such as coyotes or wolves will attack the rear flank. The snow must have given a larger bobcat an edge, but a futile attempt in the end. Upon arrival to the Park back in early October I asked a Ranger about the number cougar sightings in recent years as the mountain range with an existing over-population of whitetail deer would likely house a big cat. His response was typical of State and Federal agents I have worked with in the past, "We do not acknowledge the existence of panthers in the Park." I'll blog some time at a later date for the reason this response is "so rehearsed" and also of personal experiences and those of family sportsmen on the subject of "big cats."