The fisher cat

Yes you see correctly, there is the word "cat" in the title.  Last week my husband and I were bolted awake by some sort of creature screaming in the night.  It went on for a very long time as we tried to figure out what the heck it was.  The dogs were growling and low barking at the noise, they had no idea what it was.   Then we heard it again a few days later and our guess was Bobcat or Fox.  I've never heard a Bobcat but I have heard a fox many times and was sure that what we were hearing was very different.  So I googled 'screaming sound night Connecticut,' and found the culprit.

The Fisher Cat;  is actually a member of the weasel family and not a cat at all.  Their numbers went so low that I'd never even heard of them until several years ago from my family back in Ottawa.  I grew up in the country and lived mostly in the country until we moved to California and I'd never seen or heard of them.  Several years ago my brother mentioned to me that they were becoming a problem, preying on cats and small dogs in the area.


The Fisher Cat, is what we heard here in Connecticut.  It was hunted for its gorgeous think brown coat so they were rarely seen but now have made a come back and their numbers are growing.  They are carnivores and mostly eat small mammals like rabbits, squirrels and cats.  They have been known to take and eat small dogs so this is why I have written about them today.  In California it was the Coyote that we needed to be watchful for; if you have small dogs you must take great care to protect them from predators like this is you live around them.

So there you have it; a creepy weasel like creature that makes a horrendous screeching sound in the middle of the night.  The Fisher Cat.