This is Burt Reynolds (the first male nude centerfold):
This is an artist's rendering of a bobcat in roughly the same pose:
(This is from assorted older posts & one recent one.)
Friends of ours used to have a pet bobcat named Roberta Pussycat. Let me tell you about our first meeting. I went to pick my friend Flavia up for lunch. She wasn't quite ready so she asked me to have a seat in the living room. Her bobcat, Roberta, whom I had never met, came & sat at my feet. I guess it was instinct that made her growl & raise a fully clawed paw at me. I was a young mother & I had instincts, too. Without a thought in my mind that she was a wild animal, I reached down & slapped her face!! She looked at me & sat down again & we got along fine. It was my fault--I didn't realize that I was sitting in her chair!!
Roberta had her meals at the table with them. Her favorite foods were asparagus & shrimp. Her table manners were fine if you don't count putting your face in your food & licking your plate. Due to her lack of opposable thumbs she was never able to master the use of silverware.
Not everyone was comfortable with Roberta. I remember one time we were at her house for dinner. My father-in-law Phil was also a guest. Phil was sitting on the couch & Roberta was pacing back & forth behind him on the couch back, at shoulder level. Phil kept mumbling, almost inaudibly, "Nice kitty. Nice kitty."
Flavia & Earl owned a boat for a little while. It was called the "Pussycat", of course. We went out on it with the three of them once. I won't say for sure that Roberta was seasick because she never actually upchucked. The weird look in her eyes & the tinge of green around the gills makes me think I was right, though. A seasick bobcat is a strange sight!!
My husband & I were making our first trip to Europe. We had been with our friends Earl & Flavia who now lived in Paris & we went on to London. We decided to invite them to come over to London & go to a stage show & dinner as a “thank you”. We saw “Jesus Christ, Superstar”, which had just opened. After dinner Flavia asked the maitre d' for a doggy bag for her leftovers. He said, "Oh, you have a dog?" She told him no, that she had a cat. "Moi, aussi," (So do I) he said, "What kind?" She said that she actually had a bobcat. "Moi, aussi," he said excitedly & they whipped out pictures--proud parents that they were!!
If you'd like to see a short video of a bobcat in the wild click here.
