We've has cats, squirrels, grouse, raccoons, snakes, skunks and opossums but never anything that big.

Do not leave the garage doors open at night anymore.

Had a Bobcat in the Garage one day.

Theres quite a story behind that, someday I'll tell it.

My ex- had a bad habit of leaving the garage door open a couple of feet so that the cat could get out at night.  I told no more than about 6" was sufficient for the cat, but she persisted until someone came under it and stole a bunch of my tools.  

I once left a rabbit fur hat in my car with the windows down in the garage and that cat found it.  There were tufts of rabbit fur all over the place! 

A couple of years ago I was in Santa Fe.  A lion came down out of the mountains and wandered into the main square of the town. It was chased into a building, where it was cornered in a men's room stall.  A local cop went in after it with a tranquilizer gun! This man was either incredibly brave or incredibly dumb, but either way he was incredibly lucky not to be badly injured, facing down a pissed off 85-pound predatory animal in a space that's 5x3 with only one way out, which was OVER the cop.  Had it been an African leopard he'd almost surely have been killed.

for the past 2-3 years bears have been migrating down into the piedmont section of our state in search of food. They simply shoot them and toss their carcass in the dump. Just shot another one last Friday. Sad. JohnT

Bears in this area usually stay north of Toccoa GA which is about 30min north of I-85.Last year the Corp of Engineers park ranger spotted one not a 1/4 mile from my shop,Also last year the Athens GA(40 mi SW of Hartwell)the police were chasing a bear in the Athens metro area.They finally darted him while he was eating from a dumpster and released him up in the mountains north of here.

I've seen many a one in the Big Canoe area northwest of Hartwell.

hart you think it will come back to you?

An entrepreneurial Queens man makes his living off New York City streets, but in a manner far different from that which city residents have witnessed before.

Raffi Stepanian, 43, earns his cash scouring the sidewalks in Midtown’s Diamond District for hidden treasure – chips of rubies, diamonds, platinum and gold that somehow fell off their owners’ jewelry and became lodged in the cracks between cement slabs or hopelessly stuck in a piece of gum some passerby flippantly spit out onto the street, according to a report.

In less than a week, Stepanian told The New York Post he amassed enough gold for two sales worth nearly $850 on 47th Street.

“The percentage of gold out here on the street is greater than the amount of gold you would find in a mine,” the Whitestone man told the Post. “It comes close to a mother lode because in the street, you’re picking up gold left by the industry.”

The valuable gem chips are already cut and processed, which makes them even more marketable than the unrefined ore one would find in a mine. And the precious stones are out on the street for anyone willing to get down on his or her knees and look for them, Stepanian says.

“It’s the same principle as collecting cans on the street and redeeming them for nickles,” he told the Post. “It’s redemption of usable gold.” 

http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2011/07/26/news/doc4e2f1341de52f489437623.txt?viewmode=fullstory