A homeowner in Kirkland, Washington's Moss Bay neighborhood called 911 last week after hearing loud banging inside the house, fearing a burglar had broken in. When police arrived, they found something stranger: a wild bobcat pacing at the top of the stairs.
Officers kept their distance and launched a drone to track the animal's movements through the house, using the aerial footage to steer it toward an empty room rather than risk a confrontation in tight hallways. Video released by police shows the animal growling and pacing before it was contained. Once the bobcat was isolated, officers called in the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, whose staff sedated the animal and drove it to a wilderness area near Forbes Creek for release.
Investigators believe the bobcat climbed a tree outside the home and leapt through an open window, possibly drawn by the scent of the homeowner's pet cat, which was found unharmed elsewhere in the house. No people were hurt in the encounter, and wildlife officials said the bobcat itself showed no signs of injury or illness.
Bobcat sightings are not unusual in the wooded neighborhoods east of Seattle, where the animals — typically twice the size of a house cat — hunt rodents, birds and rabbits along creek corridors that thread through suburban lots. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says encounters inside homes are far rarer, and usually the result of an open door or window rather than any deliberate approach by the animal.
Wildlife officials used the incident to repeat standard guidance for the wooded suburbs around Lake Washington: keep pets indoors between dusk and dawn, secure small livestock and coops, and close ground-level windows and doors in areas known for bobcat activity. Kirkland police said no further sightings have been reported in the neighborhood since the bobcat's release.