I was walking out to my storage building at around 1 AM last night to look for some wires (I can't sleep at night and I find working in the garage at night much more comfortable than during the day). I had a smaller flashlight that is about a 200 lumen model. I shined my light up and over my building to see of anything was in the trees. Right behind my building there is a 60 ft pine and a 20 foot tall persimmon tree. About 20 feet up, I see 2 dark yellow/gold eyes staring back at me. I was 40 yards away and at first I thought it was my yellow cat named Jack. I called for Jack as I walked closer and at about 30 yards, the animal came down the tree in a hurry. At that point my blood ran cold because I saw an animal at least as big as a bobcat, with a long straight thick tail and brown fur jump down from 20 feet high in 3 hops. I backed away slowly with my flashlight on the area. It vanished without as much as a twig breaking. I want to add that the whole 60 ft pine tree was shaking as it jumped down. I made fun of my nephew when he told us he saw a mountain lion a couple of years ago while riding a 4 wheeler, but that was during the daylight at the edge of an open field. In my head, there are only three or four options that explain all of the things I saw. One is a big coon that I didn't see the stripes on the tail because it was moving too fast. Another is a big house cat like a giant 30 + pounder, but they usually stay treed or come down slowly if you spook them. Third is a fox that was trying to get to the persimmons, but I have never seen a fox climb like that and it would have been a big fox. The fourth was a juvenile mountain lion, a 40-50 lbs one. About 10 minutes after this happened, my neighbors dogs went crazy up the way it ran off. About and hour later, I heard a fox screaming but it was down in the field in the opposite direction. I live west of Eton, Ga by about 7 miles or so.
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What did I see?
- Thread starter greendawg
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Hard to say without seeing it. Gray foxes commonly climb trees, and do it well.
Lilly001
Senior Member
In order of probability, Raccoon, Bobcat, Grey Fox, large house cat,
It’s your story, pick one.
It’s your story, pick one.
Probably a gray fox. They have a climbing gear like a coon.
Railroader
Billy’s Security Guard.
'Nother vote for a gray fox...Good climbers for sure.
NE GA Pappy
Mr. Pappy
the most probable is a grey fox
jiminbogart
TCU Go Frawgs !
I thought gray was just a color phase. Can a red (or other color) fox climb trees too?
They are very seperate species that are nothing alike, not color phases. Not even in the same phylogenetic division or genus. Gray fox is like a cross between a dog and cat in a way. Red foxes can't climb anything like a gray.
georgiabound
Senior Member
Greendawg, where abouts you live? I live in same general area, behind NW elementary. I have heard of cougars being spotted in the lower areas of Cohutta and also along Conasauga River area.
BassRaider
Senior Member
Did you find any tracks?
LTZ25
Senior Member
Flip the list .In order of probability, Raccoon, Bobcat, Grey Fox, large house cat,
It’s your story, pick one.
jiminbogart
TCU Go Frawgs !
Thanks for the replies.
Can a gray and a red mate?
I've only seen foxes at my place once. A grayish and redish pair jogged by in the middle of the day.
Never saw them again and I've never seen their tracks in the mud.
Raylander
I’m Billy’s Useles Uncle.
Spotlite
Resident Homesteader
Persimmon tree and bright yellow “golden” eyes…….spent a many night coon hunting. A coon is very agile.
Wire Nut
Senior Member
cat
I'm a couple of hundred yards off the Conasauga, straight up a hill, with a ridge that runs into Fuller Chappel.
No but where it came down was hard ground. No claw marks up the tree.
After looking at exactly where it was at, it was in the persimmon tree for sure, that parts makes the tree shaking more likely to be a smaller animal. I think it was a fox, one snatched our chicken back in the spring. The fact that I heard a fox scream an hour later pretty much seals it. There was a 5th option in my head because I hear them all the timeout here, and that is a big owl. I was thinking that an owl flying away could explain away the lack of sound, but even in the blink of an eye I saw a long tail. It looked more solid than fluffy and that's what said to me that it was a possible mountain lion, and not a mythical black panther, but the tail could have been fluffy, so fox it is.
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