ATLANTA — A bobcat startled some new parents when they spotted it from their hospital room window.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen spoke to the soon-to-be father about what he did next.
Northside Hospital Cherokee is a very large complex carved out of an even larger wooded area.
This past weekend, from a patient room on the back side of the building, Dusty Hemphill saw the bobcat.
Hemphill said he did a double-take.
"First, I took a picture. I was like, ‘Wow! What is that?’" Hemphill said.
A bobcat came out of some tall grass, strolled along a road behind the hospital, then climbed back in the brush.
It never came close to the building. Experts say it would not come close to people, either.
"It will probably just go right back where it came from,” Kaitlin Goode, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, said.
Goode says bobcats are loners and can weigh up to 35 pounds. They are not rare, but it is rare to see one because they usually travel and hunt from dusk to dawn.
However, she was not surprised that one would appear there because there is so much wooded area.
“We’ve even had them close to downtown Atlanta. So, where there’s good cover, we can see bobcats,” Goode said.
Hemphill was at the hospital with his wife, who gave birth to Dansby shortly after. Mother and baby are both healthy.
The bobcat continued to go on its way.
“He just came out, looked around and skipped right up into the woods,” Hemphill said.
A hospital spokesperson wanted to stress the bobcat did not go near the building and staff have alerted the grounds and security crew.
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