This is a must watch!!!! I about became lunch this morning!!!!!!
Posted by Bobby Greathouse on Monday, May 4, 2015
WILEYVILLE, W.Va. — Bobby Greathouse said he lives in the woods, but in all of those many trips into the great outdoors he’d never seen a bobcat.
“I’ve caught several trapping, but I’ve never seen one just blundering through the woods being a bobcat,” he said.
That all changed Monday. The Wileyville resident was turkey hunting in Wetzel County and hadn’t heard a single gobble all morning. He was situated on a long point and was dry calling in hopes of getting the attention of an interested gobbler. While that didn’t happen, he did manage to get the attention of something.
“I couldn’t see it at first, it just looked like a ball,” Greathouse said. “He kept creeping toward me and finally I realized it was a bobcat and I realized he probably figured he was on a turkey.”
Not wanting to miss a rare opportunity, Greathouse managed to get his camera phone into position to snap a few pictures of the cat, thinking it would be gone at any moment. However, instead of leaving it became more curious.
“It kept easing at me,” said Greathouse. “Next thing I know it was at 20 yards. I flipped the camera to video so I could show my wife. I started twitching my finger a little bit. Every time I would do that he’d move a little closer and when I’d stop, he’d stop.”
Greathouse kept teasing the critter, which was zoned in on his hand and realizing it had just heard a turkey cluck in that vicinity. Soon, the tension was unleashed and the cat went for broke.
“He came charging and was almost in my lap,” Greathouse said. “He was right about 3 feet from my boots.”
The video captured Greathouse’s surrender with an audible shout. The cat immediately disappeared still hungry and probably more startled than the hunter.
“I’m just glad I didn’t scream like a little school girl,” he said.
The video was posted to Facebook and by this writing had received more than 200,000 views.
There have been a number of similar cases of mistaken identity by bobcats and turkey hunters. The best known may have been in the 1990’s when a cat actually jumped on the head of DNR biologist Randy Tucker in Randolph County.
Greathouse’s incident made for a great story and a greater video and probably served as a testament to his calling and concealment skills. The true test is fooling a turkey. Fooling a leery predator is arguably an even bigger feat.