Busy Bobcat Bothering Backyards

Coppell residents spot wild cat

A bobcat is on the prowl in one Coppell neighborhood, tearing up patio furniture and making strange noises at night. And now, one resident has snapped a photo of the large cat. Neighbors are on edge.

"In the picture, he's big!” said Nicci Chambers, whose home along Madison Street is next to a large wooded area. Chambers has not yet seen the bobcat herself, but has wondered for weeks what has been tearing up furniture in her backyard.

She has also heard loud noises at night she described as “blood-curdling screaming.” “I think he must be feasting at night,” she said. “He doesn't seem very friendly."

Sharon Logan, a Coppell city spokeswoman, said animal control officers try to trap the cats and relocate them, but that catching them is difficult. “The bobcat is now an urbanized animal,” Logan said. “It's very common here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The best thing is to keep your small animals inside or at least by your side."

She said bobcats are more scared of people than people are of them and are not generally dangerous if left alone."They're looking for water, they're trying to feed their young, they're looking for food,” Logan said. “They have adapted very well to urban living."

Chambers said she just wants the animal gone."I'd like for him to just be relocated,” she said. “I don't want anything to happen to him. I don't think that's fair since I live up against these woods. But I'd like for him to him to be relocated."

She said the bobcats were probably there long before the neighborhood. "I'm sure he lives back in there,” she said, pointing to the woods behinds her house. “A little too close to home for us."

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