Let’s compare: Johnson has “at least a dozen shooting trophies in her flat and says that she once shot a hole in a coin from 30 feet away”.
A claim to fame for sure but Oakley is on record for her talents with a .22 caliber rifle and “reputedly could split a playing card edge-on and put five or six more holes in it before it touched the ground”. And that’s from 90 feet away.
I think Oakley takes the gold on this one but I wouldn’t want to be a mugger messing with the .357 Magnum-packing granny either!
What happened next was not a joke but “pandemonium”: two or three minutes of chivalry, cellphone cameras and people jumping on top of pool tables to get out of the way.
When it was over, two people were scratched and bleeding, and the bobcat was gunned down by police in a parking lot on Main Street.
It’s not the way I’d want to spend my Tuesday night in Cottonwood I have to say, but the Arizona Republic piece about “a barroom story that is sure to become legend” made me sit up and take notice because:
the comments from concerned readers are superb, suggesting Arizona should quickly repeal the ban on handguns in ‘establishments that serve liquor’ - just in case there’s a wave of further rabid bobcat invasions;
we drove past that very bar not that long ago on the way to historic mining town Jerome and the area seemed quite suburban, not prone to wild animal attacks!
To get the full flavour of the event watch the video below which includes CCTV footage from the bar.
I love the way people reach straight for the camera phone to get a snap. Are they updating their Facebook status with ‘just been attacked by a bobcat’ or perhaps looking to take the ‘What wild animal is in my bar’ quiz?
And at least the lawmen in town didn’t face sudden death by angry gunslinger - taking no chances and blasting the critter emerging from the saloon with 3 shots.
After a 3 month hiatus here at Wild West Land it’s time to climb into the saddle again and start blogging about all things western.
Why the silence at the start of 2009? Well the truth is I’ve been busy. Not busy in the household chores sense of the word and not busy as in locked up in the stockade either. I’ve been busy moving to the other side of the world, New Zealand to be precise, the land of Big Ben.
Big Ben you ask? Who he? Do you mean that big clocktower in London that appears on the HP sauce bottle? Did the Kiwis build Big Ben?
The short answer is no - ‘Big Ben’ downunder is synonymous with pies. In fact, Big Ben as a brand is New Zealand’s most popular pie. And Kiwis love their pies…
Ben’s pies are “great value for money for students” and, for me, a reassuring sign that the cowboy is a global icon recognised wherever you are. It makes me believe that running the Cowboy Country store from the bottom of the world is going to be possible AND fun in the Auckland sun.
Now that the container has been unpacked I’ll be posting regular updates with new scans from some classic cowboy cartoons and annuals. Plus did I mention the 2 week road trip from Phoenix to LA?
