Wild Bobcats Make Woman’s Front Porch Their Home: ‘These Guys Have Been Here a Month’ – Newsweek

An Arizona woman's photo went viral when she shared a picture of some unusual houseguests.

A pack of young bobcatsreferred to as a kindlehave taken over the front porch of Kate Smith's Mesa home. She posted a picture of three young kittens sleeping near her house's entryway on Friday.

"So this is my front porch right now," Smith captioned the photo on Twitter.

The image of the slumbering cats went viral, with over 291,000 likes, 23,000 retweets and 4,000 comments of people chiming in on the bobcats' cuteness and their odd choice of a den.

The three cats pictured didn't just spend the night at Smith's home; they have taken up residence on her front porch.

"These guys have been here a month," Smith told KPNX, a local Arizona station. "I've been told that as soon as the cubs are old enough to hunt on their own, they should be moving on, but they've been here a while."

Smith posted more photos of the wild cats in the comments of her tweet. Twitter users asked for more bobcat content, and Smith posted several photos of the animals around her home. One photo taken from inside of the house shows one sitting up against a window and looking into the home.

Other pictures show the cats hanging out in trees and lounging around on garden walls. Commenters shared their own photos of uninvited, but not always unwelcome, guests. Squirrels, snakes, birds, raccoons, bears, lizards, moose and fellow bobcats were posted in response to Smith.

Smith said on Twitter that she has not attempted to touch or pick them up because she didn't want the mom to leave them behind.

She called the Arizona Game and Fish Department when the kindle started hanging around, the local station reported. Due to their nature, if the bobcats were to be removed by the Game and Fish Department, they likely would not survive the relocation and it is considered a last resort.

"The answer they gave me was that if you take them out of their territory, they typically don't survive, so I said, 'Oh, forget it," Smith said. "They're territorial, so if you plop them down in an area they're unfamiliar with, they usually won't make it."

She said she had to warn neighbors and delivery drivers not to come to the front porch. She hung up a sign asking people to stay away from the kindle.

"All neighbors and family know not to come to the front door," she said. "Our dog is grounded at this point."

People online who saw the picture suggested that Smith give them water to drink, but she told KPNX that she didn't want to make them too comfortable on her porch.

"Everybody is like, Oh my god, give them water. But Game and Fish told me not to give them water because you don't want them comfortable," she said.

If she were to feed or water them, the cats may become too attached to the porch or Smith and would not be able to go back into the wild, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

According to the Game and Fish Department, bobcats do not pose a threat to humans and don't often attack people except in the rare case that they are hyperaggressive or have rabies.

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Wild Bobcats Make Woman's Front Porch Their Home: 'These Guys Have Been Here a Month' - Newsweek