The first time I went with my family to visit Santa Fe in the late 1950s, we ate at a restaurant on the south side of town called Bobcat Bite. It was in a former trading post on the old Las Vegas Highway. According to legend, the restaurant was named for bobcats in the area that would stop by for scraps of food.
The restaurant continued in operation for many years, but closed in 2013. It has since reopened, but I’m not sure if it still feeds area bobcats.
What triggered this topic was a message I got regarding my earlier post on critters in urban settings. Apparently, it’s happening even more these days.
My long-time friend Joel sent me pictures he took last spring of a couple of juvenile bobcats lounging on his back porch in the Sonoma Ranch area. And I mean literally lounging.
Then my sister, who lives in Cochiti Lake, recently said she feared that a mountain lion was cruising through her neighborhood. She sent this (rather disgusting) photo of some cat scat to prove something was running around near her house. She later said it was probably just a large adult bobcat, which she sees frequently in her rural area.
But so far, I have not seen a live bobcat around our home — although I’m certain they are nearby.
However, I did for the first time spot a roadrunner cruising through our neighborhood and crossing a corner of our lot. I see them all the time when driving around areas near the desert on the east side of town, but they seem to have avoided our more lush environment in the valley.
And it turned out — as I have told my children and grandchildren — that it was a good omen. I had lost my money clip with about $25 in it when I went to a nearby store earlier in the day. I was pretty sure I would never see it again. But my wife convinced me that it was worth the effort to go back to the store and see if anyone had turned it in.
To my surprise, the store manager said someone had found it and gave it to him — with money still intact. I took $10 out of the clip and gave it to the store manager and told him to buy a six pack of beer for his staff.
Here’s hoping all of us see more roadrunners — or even bobcats — in the future.
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