Children spot bobcat in the backyard of their Collier County home

A bobcat was caught creeping around on a fence in a family’s backyard in Collier County. The children alerted their mother to what they saw lurking outside their playroom window.

Katie McKimm, mom of Chase, Kit, Caden, and Colsten had a thrilling front row seat of the bobcat, saying:

Caden: “I was surprised and scared.”

Colsten: “I just looked out the window and then I just said ‘Chase look there’s a panther, lion, or cheetah or something.'”

Chase: “I thought it was a leopard.”

“All of a sudden I just heard screaming and I was like ‘oh my gosh what’s going on’ and I just heard one of my sons yelling, ‘cheetah, lion, Mom come quick,'” McKimm said.

The mother said, like her kids, she didn’t know what she was looking at, at first.

“I thought it was going to jump through the window,” Colsten said.

The bobcat was just looking for its next meal.

“We watched it like I said for about 5 minutes, you really saw real-life an animal on the prowl. I was so tempted to knock on the window to save the bunny’s life,” McKimm said.

McKimm said she has never seen a bobcat in the neighborhood before. She quickly alerted her neighbors and posted a video of the animal on social media.

“I was really glad the kids weren’t outside because they are outside most of the time,” McKimm said.

And now Chase, Kit, Caden, and Colsten don’t want to play outside without their mom by their side.

“I don’t like being outside alone, that’s one of my worst enemies,” Caden said.

The family did report the sighting to FWC.

WINK News reached out for more information on what the office might do, but no one got back to her.