Belligerent bobcat. (Exercising the Right).

On the afternoon of August 29th, brothers John and Bryan Stynchula were working on a cabin three miles west of Del Norte, Colorado, when a bobcat emerged from the woods and attacked them. John climbed a scaffolding to safety, while Bryan ran into the cabin and slammed a sliding glass door virtually in the cat's face. The aggressive animal hurled itself at the door, leaving muddy footprints and body marks on the glass.

John eventually managed to reach his loaded .22-caliber rifle and shoot the bobcat twice, killing it. The brothers called the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW), which had the cat's carcass taken to a wildlife hospital and rehabilitation center near Del Norte. The Denver Post for September 13th quoted Michael Seraphin, DOW public information officer for southeastern Colorado, as saying that the cat "smelled like a skunk and had porcupine quills stuck in it, so it may have eaten a skunk that ate a dead bat, or it could have eaten a bat." Most cases of rabies in the state are found in bats. According to the Post, the recent incident is the first-ever known instance of rabies in a bobcat in the Centennial State. Seraphin agreed that John Stynchula had "shot it in self-defense."