I'm not talking about domestic cats. By my lights, there's no "good" domestic cats. I guess my favorite cat is the jaguar with African leopards a close second. I like cheeta's but their personality is too domestic to suit me. Nice kitties and lovable tho. Jaguars and leopards do it alone. They need no pride or siblings to help them survive. Both have more venom than a truckload of cobras when cornered. Both cats are lightning quick & have a lot of talent in their paws and teeth. When attacked the leopard flops on it's back & uses all four feet as well as it's teeth. I don't know if jaguars do this or not but they have nothing to fear in their habitat  except other jaguars or snakes.

I never met a leopard in the wild. Only one jaguar back in 1955 in the jungles of Panama. It was a melanistic jaguar. It walked up on me while I was sitting resting. It's possible it had been stalking me but for some reason I just don't think so. We were both dumbfounded when we realized the other was there. I most likely swallowed my heart three times. I wasn't afraid, just shocked that something that big was there just 20 feet away & I wasn't  aware of it. .......I like bobcats too. They'll follow you thru the woods but you seldom see or hear them. I found the best way to see one if you suspect you're being followed is stop & be perfectly still a while. Apparently they follow by the sound you make & if things get quiet, their curosity gets the best of them & they come looking for you. .......Paaul H

The African leopard (Panthera pardis), is one of Africa's "Big Five", and for good reason. They are amazingly powerful critters. Jaguars (P. onca) are for all intents and purposes the same animal in the New World. They are amazing animals.

Paul

I would have to agree about house cats. They have come in handi around the farm. Anytime the out building s started smelling like mice it was time for a few more cats. On to the real cats. I bought a few cougar hunting license s over the years and have never seen one in the wild untimely the fall early winter of this year. I was driving on the number three highway near Kelowna when what appeared to be a really large cat crossed the road in front of me. The only thing that made me wonder if I had really had seen one was the color. It crossed the road in front of me less that two hundred feet away moving relatively fast but was a brown black color. It sure moved over the guard rail like a cat though. When I got home I sparked up my Japanese brain and looked up cougars on the web. Sure enough they do come in that color although really rare. Funny how I have only seen one then as rare as that is in an even rarer color. I would consider myself lucky having seen one wild cat in its natural habitat in my life. Sounds like you have seen more than one! Is it as rare as I am thinking or have I not been looking in the right places?

Farmboy, wild cats are VERY secretive & elusive. I know the secret to seeing bobcats is being very still &  quiet. They pick up on sound & motion like an owl. I've only seen half a dozen or so bobcats in my lifetime. Saw two in Maine while bear hunting. One sneaked in to the bait when it was almost too dark to see. The other one was in a white pine farm in the middle of the day. I suspect it couldn't hear me walking in the carpet of pine needles. It was probably just luck that I spotted it crouched looking at  me about 50 feet away. When our eyes made contact, it darted off. .......Killed the  biggest bobcat I ever saw in Ky. , when I was around 14 or 15 years old. Caught it while trapping. Weighed 37 pounds. It was a sow. Heard many screaming at night during mating season when I was a kid down in the mountains.    ......Paul H

Here's one for you, Paul.

Paul

Paul, it looks like a jaguar but the eyes & spots instead of rosetts say leopard. I'm too blind now to tell much about it. Nice kitty regardless.    ......Paul H

I am partial to snow leopards.