A cougar and a bobcat walk into a restaurant...

This past week I spent a few days at Hueston Woods State Park with my niece and was I ever impressed! We stayed at the Lodge with its spacious rooms that had excellent mattresses and bedding, microwave, refrigerator, DVD player and VCR. Plenty of storage space, which is usually wanting in hotel rooms and a large balcony with a view of the lake. It was nice.

We went over to the Nature Center on the grounds and met some very interesting animals.

First post: the cougar and bobcat. The cougar's name is Cougie and if you're like me, you may initially wonder why in the world a state park in Southern Ohio keeps a cougar. This place is a sanctuary and Cougie, who is 17 years old, was bred on a farm in Colorado where some loser breeds exotic animals for pets. Cougie is declawed and was confiscated from an owner in Ohio. Cougie eats "things left over from when hot dogs are made." OK: gross.

The bobcat, shoot, I can't recall his name, was also bred as a pet. He is 21 years old and also declawed. He had killed the family dog and was locked in a bedroom in an apartment where he lived with a family of human idiots and fools.

You'll get no apologies from me for a strong opinion on this.

He was taken into custody and turned over to the state park where he also eats hot dog leftovers! The bobcat is shy and the first time we saw him, we didn't. We saw what looked to be an empty cage. When he was fed, the naturalist put the food into the enclosure and then told us that he wouldn't eat until we left. Others moved on, but we hid behind the fence and I put the camera up to record him eating. You can tell while he eats that he is watching all over to see that no one sneaks up on him.

Cougie is on YouTube because the video is so long. You don't need to watch the whole thing to get the idea, but the naturalist is speaking and so I kept recording. See the video here.

Here is the bobcat: