Red in Tooth and Claw

tonight I went running on playing fields near my apartment. It was just before nine but the stadium lighting made everything visible. I came to the darkest corner of the fields where a fence separates them from an undeveloped expanse thick with brush. As a ran, a large animal ambled toward me, rabbit limp in its mouth. The rabbit dangled nerveless, probably just killed body much longer without the tautness and compression of life. At first I couldn't tell what the predator was, the body thick with smooth muscle over squatty legs. I thought fox, then coyote, then dog, but it didn't have the pointed ears or muzzle. As I got closer I saw that it was a cat, a bobcat, had those side-whiskers that look like mutton chops and a cat's lope. It was big for a bobcat. A website said they can way up to thirty pounds and this animal was all of that. The bobcat let me get pretty close, slinking along through the grass, then sliding under a set of bleachers with its dinner. All around on the field other rabbits grazed peacefully, only hopping away when they were in danger of being stepped on.

Postscript
On that same night, and the next, I kept running by a bloody rabbit skin near the same place on the field. I guess the hunting is good.