Palmetto woman snaps close encounter with bobcat

PALMETTO, Fla. - A Palmetto woman captured incredible photos of a bobcat that wandered near her yard and watched her pretty intensely during the encounter.

Linda Buttstead says she was alerted to the bobcat, which arrived in her yard around 11:45 a.m. Sunday, by her Macaw squawking on the porch.

"Through the screen in the shade, it looked like a dog but ours was in the house," she said. So she grabbed her camera and started clicking away, and that's when she realized it was a bobcat.

After a bit, the cat disappeared behind her shed only to emerge again just outside her chain link fence, where it watched her as she took pictures.

Buttstead was using a telephoto lense to capture the photos. "After sitting and watching me a while you could tell it was getting worried by me getting closer even though I had a zoom lens," she said. "I am not great so I get as close as I can and I think that is why he finally decided to leave."

The bobcat finally ran off around 12:45, an hour after it arrived.

Buttstead says there is an animal trail behind her property and then open spaces, which is where it likely went.

Buttstead she's lived there since 1979 and has never seen any bobcats in the area. "I am amazed that we have them that close," she said.