Ken Conrad Dances With a Wild Bobcat

I have just finished watching the movie “Born Free” with my son.  I had recorded it on DVR because I knew he liked watching Big Cats.  It reminded me of when Ken Conrad (A True Power Plant Man Extraordinaire) had become entangled with a Bobcat one day while performing his heroic Power Plant duties.

When a person usually puts the words power plant and Bobcat together in a sentence, one may easily come to the wrong conclusion that this is a story about a run-away little Bobcat scoop shovel, or what is professionally known as a Bobcat Skid-Steer Loader since these are an essential piece of equipment for any power plant or any work site for that matter (and are fun to drive and do wheelies):

This is not the type of Bobcat Ken had to Wrestle

In an earlier post entitled “Indian Curse or Brown and Root Blunder” I mentioned that in the years following the completion of the power plant, steps were taken to be extra kind to the plant’s nearest neighbor, the Otoe-Missouria Indian Reservation.  This story takes place on one of those days where the electric company was showing their true colors to the friends next door.

Every summer the Otoe-Missouria tribe would hold a Pow-Wow some time in June.  This is when the the Native Americans of this tribe come together as a time for a reunion where the culture of the tribe can be kept alive.  It spans over a number of days, and people come from all over with camping trailers and stay on the reservation and have a good time visiting.  You can learn more information about the tribe’s Pow-wow, culture and the benefits from the Casino (which was not there at this time.  Not even the Bingo Hall that used to bring in buses from all over the country) from web service that hosts news about the tribe:  http://www.otoe-missouria.com

The Power Plant helped out by mowing the areas around the Otoe-Missouria Reservation where the campers would park and a large open field where events could take place and large tents could be erected.  So, when I arrived at work in the morning I was instructed to fill a water and ice bucket, and get a box of cone cups, and bring my lunch.  This was because I may not be back for lunch as I was going to be the gopher for Jim and Ken that day while they mowed the area around the Otoe-Missouria Reservation.  Being a “Gopher” as most of you know means that you are the one that “Goes For” things.  So, if they need something back at the plant, then I hop in the truck and I go and get it.  This is fine for me, but I generally liked staying active all day, or else the day drags on.  So I grabbed some trash bags and my handy dandy homemade trash stabbing tool and put them in the back of the truck as well.

I followed Jim Heflin and Ken Conrad on the two shiny new Ford tractors with double-wide brush hogs down the highway with my blinkers on so people barreling down the highway from Texas on their way to Kansas at ungodly speeds would know enough to slow down before they ploughed into a brush hog like the one below:

Almost Like this without the safety guards and just about as new

After we arrived at the reservation there was a man there that directed us to where we should mow and Ken and Jim went right to work.  They first mowed in the area where there were a lot of trees and areas to park campers and Jim and Ken worked their magic weaving in and out of the trees with these big mowers behind them just missing each tree, trash can, fire grill, building and vehicles that happened to be in their way (like the one I had driven there).

After watching their skill with the mowers for a while I stepped out of the truck, now certain that I wouldn’t be hit with a flying rock because the mowers had moved a safe distance from me.  I began walking around picking up some trash.  While Ken and Jim mowed the rest of this area, I helped the man move some large logs and picnic tables and things like that around the campsite.

When Ken and Jim had finished this area they moved over the the large field at the edge of the campground, and I drove the truck over there and watched as they both circled around and around making smaller circles each time staying opposite of each other like they were doing a synchronized dance with the mowers.

I was standing in the back of the truck leaning against the cab watching them when I noticed that Jim began waving one hand up in the air much like a cowboy would do while riding on a bronco to keep their balance.  His head began bobbing and I wondered if he was all right.  Then I saw what had happened.  A very large cat that looked like a grown mountain lion came darting out of the tall brush and ran in front of Jim’s tractor and headed for the trees that lined the far side of the field.  As excited as I could tell Jim was by this, he didn’t miss a beat with his mowing, and only lifted his hardhat long enough to wipe his head with a rag.  Then he kept on mowing as if nothing else had happened.  Maybe because he was in complete shock and auto-pilot had kicked in.

As Jim circled around, Ken came around to the spot where Jim had just been mowing.  Unlike Jim, Ken did not start to wave his hand as a cowboy on a bronco.  Instead he jumped up in his seat while shutting down his mower and jumped off into the tall brush.  He began running around in circles.  At this point Jim had seen what Ken was doing, so he shutdown his mower also.  I had jumped off of the truck and ran toward where Ken was dancing.  Jim came huffing and puffing up to me and asked me if I had seen that huge mountain lion run in front of him.  I nodded to him and ran over to Ken who at this point was standing still as if frozen.

As we approached, Ken signaled for us to stay back, so we slowed down and watched him as we came slowly closer.  Ken wasn’t moving his feet, but he was slowly swiveling his body around looking into  the brush.  Then like Tom Sawyer he bent down quickly and reached into a pile of mowed grass that had piled up near where he was standing.  By this time we were close enough to see what was down on the ground that Ken had grabbed.  He was holding down a kitten.  It was a baby Bobcat.  You could tell by the short tail  (a bob-tail cat):

Like this one only a little younger but not by much

Ken had hold of the bobcat with both hands.  One at the scruff of his neck and the other above his hind legs.  He began lifting up the cat from the ground, and it was hissing and went wild trying to bite and scratch Ken.  At this point the man from the reservation had come over, because he had also seen the very large bobcat run from the field and had watched Ken dancing in the grass.  Ken asked him “What do I do now?”  He had caught the baby bobcat, and now realized that he couldn’t let go of it without serious bodily injury (bringing to mind the phrase “Having a tiger by the tail”).

We all became aware that somewhere close by the mother was watching us from the trees.  Jim remarked that he didn’t know bobcats could grow that big and the man assured him that there are a number of large bobcats on their reservation that he had seen.  He suggested that he could get a five gallon bucket and Ken could throw the cat in the bucket while he put a wire screen over the top so that it couldn’t jump out and scratch or bite them.

We walked back to the camping area and the man came out of a small building and had some screen material and a board.  Then Ken standing there sort of like Frankenstein with his arms straight out in front of himself (to keep from being mauled), asked a couple of times exactly what they were planning on doing, so that he would get it right.  The man said that he should throw the cat into the bucket and he would quickly put the board over the top.  Then he could put the screen over the board and take the board out and tie the screen on the top with some wire.

So that’s what Ken did.  He quickly threw the cat into the bucket as the man slammed the board on top.  It looked like it happened so fast that I was surprised to find that while the cat was quickly being ejected from Ken’s hands and being propelled into the bucket, it had enough speed to reach around with one of its paws and cut a gash down the side of Ken’s hand.

After that, I drove Ken back to the plant to get bandaged up and so that he could show everyone what he had caught.  He was very proud of his wound and he seemed to grow even taller than his normal tall thin self.  It seemed to take about 15 seconds before everyone in the plant knew that Ken had caught a bobcat as they were all making a trip over to the garage to have a peek at him.  Ken said he was going to take it home and then decide what he was going to do with it.

I drove Ken back to the reservation to get his tractor as Jim had finished mowing the field.

The following day we learned that when Ken arrived at his house there was someone there already waiting for him to see his wild new pet.  Yes.  Most of you have been waiting for the other shoe to drop on this story.  An Oklahoma Park Ranger.  Who informed Ken that he had received 8 calls from different people at the plant letting him know that one Power Plant Hero Ken Conrad was in possession of a wild bobcat caught on an Indian Reservation (of all places — I say that because that is federal property, possibly making it a federal crime).  And Ken could be in for a very serious legal entanglement.  Ken told the ranger that he was only going to show it to his family then bring it back to the reservation and let it go.  The Park Ranger (not usually portrayed as a lenient character) offered to take the bobcat back himself.

Needless to say.  Ken was not very pleased with his fellow campers the next morning when he arrived at work.  He kept saying… “You just can’t tell who your friends are. They all came over here acting like my buddies then they ran off to call the ranger.”  By that time I had worked around the power plant men for one entire summer and this was my second.  I knew that the Real Power Plant Men would have known that Ken would do the right thing and wouldn’t have called the ranger.  Ken was right though, some of them were imposters.  I knew there were some people at the plant who would have felt it was their duty to call the ranger, and I never considered them power plant men in the first place.  Ken Conrad, however, has always lived up to my expectations as a Real Power Plant Man!

It’s funny what comes to mind when you sit down to watch a movie on a Friday night.