So I have a sale offer on my house. We accepted. The inspector comes and in his report says we have a pest problem below the house, probably a skunk or opossum. My house is 4 years old and I know all the foundation vents are in place so I am perplexed. We haven't heard a sound, or smelled anything weird. So last night I got home and dropped down in the crawl space, wearing one of those white plastic coveralls.

There is no doubt at this point an animal has been in there. There is turds everywhere and the animal has walked over the HVAC pipes in a few locations. I look and there are claw marks in the plastic where the animal crossed the pipes. The claw marks are small, like a cat's or possibly an oppossums would look. Let me explain the scat, it is all bigger in diameter than a nickel, maybe a little less than a quarter. It is for the most part 3-6" long. It is everywhere, so I start rolling up the vapor barrier, and repairing the places in the insulation that need it.

Finally, I find where the animal has gotten into the crawl space. It is directly under my front door. Somehow, it pushed through the crawlspace vent, breaking the mesh completely off the plastic. I know this vent was in place when I built the porch over it in 2005. The hole is about 6x6, or standard foundation vent size.

I find a couple of bird carcasses along the eges of the crawl.

I am on my way back to the crawlspace opening with my plastic and looking around I see a pair of eyes about 15 feet ahead of me and to my left. I am dragging one of these work lights that takes a regular incandescant bulb with me. I put it up and get a quick view of the animal, and initially think "Its a cat". There are some feral cats in the area, and this definitely looks like a cat. The face is mottled grey/brown the color of a coyote in my mind.

Anyways it slinks back where I can't see it, and I really don't feel like getting much closer unarmed so I drag everything out and leave the animal in there, or to leave as it sees fit. I have some of the turds in a box and got on line to check.

It is a 100% match with bobcat turds. I mean everything, down to the coloring and size.

Is that even possible? Have any of you heard of a bobcat living in a crawl space? I have no doubt one could fit through that hole.

Well anyways tonight we are going back in with better lights and a 22, to see if we can evict it permanently. I might have a sentry out on the deck with a shotgun and buckshot, because I think it would be really cool to have a bobcat skull in my garage to go with this weird story.

not that i am against you shooting a bobcat, but you could into some trouble if you do....

Its a bobcat that lives under my house, I am not going to scratch under his throat and ask him to leave. . . but you are right, I should call a GW, and advise about the situation.

I will do that. One lives real close to me.

my buddy killed a bob cat that was living in his barn, some one over heard him tell a friend about, reported him, and he got a fine because he didnt have the proper license...

I wouldn't call a GW you'l have years of environmental impact statements, Bio assessments etc... I'd do what had to be done and practice the 3 S's.

Or just plan on outliving the Bobcat....

could you explain the 3 S's?

RR-

if it's just the smell that's a problem, maybe you can use these somehow

http://www.garmentguard.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=8

Call me if you need back-up. I can be there in 10 minutes. I'll bring the .458.

what exactly were you searching for when you stumbled on this site???

I definitely don't want to get a fine, and I definitely do want to sell my house. We might have to just use firecrackers and lights to scare it off then seal its hole up. I'm still not going down there unarmed though.

id shoot the bastard...i was just giving you a friendly warning.

I want in on that action.

It was on the Sports Illustrated site - here's the story, which is pretty good! But then, when aren't farts funny?

http://bensbiz.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/03/whether_its_the_fifth_third.html

POP IT ! Not sure a .458 is large enough DF....got anything bigger?

DF-

will you eat it if you shoot it, like your avatar implies? do you have a recipe for bobcat? I can't find one in the tips section of PP.

ive had cougar, but never bobcat....although im sure they taste like chicken

To blast more exit holes??

Call the guy we were talking about that lives up the road from you if you want to know. I doubt he is going to give you a hard time about anything.

The ending to this story is shaping up to be a Dark Side Hall o Famer...

I'm going to, and I'm sure you are right about what his response will be. This is a definite nuisance animal, you should see my crawl space, also it is an animal that has learned to live under houses.

One of my other buddy's from McCleary has been e-mailing me all day. He is so gung ho about this that he arranged for baby sitting for my kids just so we could go down there. He said he has enough "spot lights and small arms to do the job".

What is in that aquifer Dogfish?

I really hope that it is not down there today, and that I can just seal it out. My luck is he will shoot a pipe and then I'll end up having to do more repairs.