By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU, Maine — The Ridenours are familiar with having lots of animals at their business, Home Farm Kennels, but a special breed visited their property last week.
Joanna Ridenour had donned her snowshoes for a walk around the Old Washburn Road property and was headed back to get her golden retriever puppies, when she heard a strange shriek. That’s when she saw the two lynx, nonchalantly walking across the road.
“She ran and got her camera,” Joanna’s father, Thomas, said on Monday.
Thomas Ridenour described that while Joanna snapped pictures of the lynx from 40 or 50 feet away, the cats didn’t show any aggression or agitation — they seemed to have been pretty indifferent about the encounter.
“Our neighbors said that they’ve seen lynx in the past and they saw some recent tracks too, but it’s the first that we’ve seen them,” Thomas said. The cats had the standard big paws, thick legs and “they were good sized animals.”
It was the first time the Ridenours saw Lynx on the property, but Norma Milton has seen them there before; Milton founded the kennel back in 1976, and remembers all sorts of wildlife would frequent the property — even a lynx or two.
“If it could walk, it was out there,” she reminisced.
Joanna didn’t have any trouble photographing the lynx, but Thomas did say with a laugh that she made sure the cats weren’t around when she let the dogs out.
