oof, yeah, that cat prolly needed killin. Easy for everyone to say "shoulda killed him dave" but unless you were there in my shoes for those few fleeting seconds it would be impossible for me to explain the thousand thoughts/considerations that raced through my head as I held & swung that rifle through that cat's run towards & past me with the safety off & about half of my 3 pound trigger pull taken up with my finger.
And then, he was gone.... And no matter what I think now, there's no changing the fact that i didn't kill him & he didn't kill me. He's just gone. Could I have "gotten away" with killing the cat? Claim self defense... I dunno, probably. But I wasn't there to hunt cats, I was there for my fat rubber nosed cow & when you consider all of my thoughts for those fleeting seconds... I know I made the right choice.
See, I can't stay quiet about a thing like that, especially something so exciting for me, I'm gonna run my mouth about it. So, I would have been on the phone with the DOW explaining where I was & what I did & all this, they wouldn't have let me keep the critter which I would have wanted... So, I basicly get the right to tell my story and maybe show some pictures here of a dead cat that I can�t keep & deal with the controversy & speculation such as �but was he really trying to kill you? Was it really self defense?�
So, then there's the other way. Keep the hide & maybe the skull, sneak it out of there risking all of my friends hunting equipment such as rifles/trucks etc... Then be my usual gabby self & end up getting busted with a cat rug back home & try explaining the truth that I was defending myself etc & probably face losing hunting privs & stuff.
See, take in the whole picture like that & it's not so plain & simple. When the cat lost his nerve on his charge because I was facing him & ready, I just held on him as he ran past & then he just kept on going. And it was over just like that.
Honestly, yeah I would have loved to shoot that big cat. Would have been fricken awesome!! But, this aint the 1800's. Sadly, we have rules & such these days & I think I did the right things with all things considered.
