Posted on 08/15/2005 5:55:10 PM PDT by crazyhorse691
The girl's mother rescues her after hitting the wildcat with a brick; county deputies later kill the animal with a single shot
A regular visit to her grandparents' home turned into a "dream sequence" for a 6-year-old Sunday when a roaming pet lynx pounced on the girl's head before her mother knocked the wildcat away with a brick.
Deputies later shot and killed the wildcat.
Frances Applegate of Southeast Portland suffered no visible injuries as she pranced barefoot in the driveway in front of her grandparents' maroon house in Clackamas three hours after the attack.
Tanya Applegate, Frances' mother, arrived at her parents' house about noon Sunday with a carrier of kittens. As she approached the brown front door, she heard her daughter scream. Applegate whipped around to find a tan Siberian lynx, the size of a large dog, between her and Frances.
"I was standing there and (said), 'Mom what is that?' " Frances said. "She turned around and told me not to move. It got behind me, pounced on me, and it started clawing my head."
Frances said she didn't have time to think about anything as the dark-brown spotted lynx tried to bite her head.
Her mother grabbed a brick and hit the lynx several times, forcing the cat to release her daughter. Tanya Applegate threw the brick at the lynx as she whisked her daughter back into her white Toyota Camry parked in the driveway.
Clackamas County sheriff's deputies arrived a short time later at the house, nestled among a shady patch of Douglas fir, vine maple and alder trees in the 158th block of Southeast Sunnyside Road. Deputies found the lynx crouched on the back porch and killed it with a single shot from a .223 rifle.
The owner's name was not available.
Deputies said the owner of the lynx reported the pet missing Friday to a Clackamas veterinary clinic, which contacted the sheriff's office. Tanya Applegate and a neighbor said the owner lives in the 167th block of Southeast Sunnyside Road.
Before killing the lynx, deputies tried to snare the animal or shoot it with a Taser, but they were unable to get close enough, said Detective Wendi Babst, a sheriff's spokeswoman.
"When they tried to approach it, it took a defensive stance," Babst said. "They were concerned for their safety, so that just wasn't an option for them. It had tried to bite this child, so they had to keep it contained in the area."
Babst said the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife requires state permits for lynx, and she wasn't clear whether the owner had a permit.
Richard Dent, who lives next door to the man who owns the lynx, said the man told him Friday that he had a state permit for the cat.
The man and a woman just moved into a tan house on Sunnyside Road on Friday, Dent said. He talked with the man briefly late afternoon Friday, and the man asked whether Dent had seen his lynx.
"When he said it was missing, we checked our yard," Dent said. "I just looked around, you know. I'm sure the cat was hiding if it was out."
Tanya Applegate was distressed that someone could keep a lynx as a pet.
"What bought us time was it was declawed," she said. "It's a wild animal. People should not have wild animals. If she'd been alone, he would've gotten into her with his fangs. The only thing that saved her was I was there with a brick and adrenaline."
Fish and Wildlife officials will test the animal for diseases, Babst said. When contacted by authorities, the owner of the lynx expressed surprise that the cat would attack anyone, Babst said.
Yuxing Zheng: 503-221-8199; yuxingzheng@news.oregonian.com
I hate it when Mrs. randog pounces on my clackamas.
OK. But, is she declawed?:)
[Grumpy Old Man voice] "When I was young, we lived in a house that was full of wild lynx. They used pounce on us all the time! We didn't have bricks to defend ourselves! We had to fight them off with our bare hands! And we liked it!" [/Grumpy Old Man voice]
LOL, I loved the "Grumpy Old Man" bit
So many wierd things happen in this Rat infested city that I am never sure if anybody would believe it if I didn't provide the hyperlynx to the lynxes.
=80
Pet...lynx?
I always wonder at the naivete of many owners of wild animal species. These animals species have honed their survival skills over millions of years, and to think they would not revert to instinctual behaviors would make one a fool.
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