State Rep. Mark Baisley wasn’t surprised to see a bear wandering through his backyard; living next to Pike National Forest makes that a regular occurrence.
He was surprised, however, when his orange tabby chased the bear through the yard, eventually treeing it in a tall evergreen.
Do not mess with Baisley’s cat. Over the weekend, the Republican legislator from Douglas County posted a video of a bear ambling through his Roxborough Park yard. His orange tabby, “Bigly,” who was also watching from the porch, charged down from the deck in pursuit of the apex predator, who escaped by climbing a nearby tree.
“We get bears through our yard all the time,” says Baisley. “Our yard is right next to the Pike National Forest, so we see all kinds of wildlife. We’ve seen this one several times. He might sniff the barbeque grill but he never approaches the house.”
On Saturday my wife and I were just watching him pass by from our deck, when Bigly decided to go after him.”
Ignoring his duly-elected state representative’s request to stop the pursuit, Bigly the cat chased the bear away from the house and up a set of steps towards the hiking trail into the forest.
Baisley continued. “When I caught up to them, the bear was up in one of the large evergreens and Bigly was staring at him from the ground. I tried to get him to come back inside but he stayed for about five minutes, with the bear growling down [at the cat], clearly displeased that he was still there. Eventually Bigly decided he’d done his job and came back to the house.”
Bigly and his kitty sister Covfefe, (did we mention that Baisley is a Republican?) are skilled hunters, says the legislator.
“Out here you have a choice: you can have cats, or you can have mice,” says Baisley. “We got our cats about a year and a half ago and they have definitely solved our mice problem. They also catch garter snakes and lizards, but I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
Baisley estimated the bear at about 250 pounds, or 20 times larger than the aptly named “Bigly,” who weighs in at a respectable 12.5 pounds.
