Dog owner is stunned to find a completely different wild animal living in his pet's bed at home

Dog owner Nikola Zovko, from Arizona, USA, thought it was one of his own cats until he looks closer and notices that it was a small lynx - a forest predator - which hissed at him as he approached

Nikola Zovko thought the creature curled up in his dog's heated bed was just one of his cats (

Image: Arizona Department of Game and Fisheries)

A dog owner was stunned to come home from work to find that a wild lynx had commandeered his dog's basket.

Nikola Zovko, owner of several dogs including Squeakers, thought the creature was a normal domestic feline when he first saw it.

But on closer inspection, he realized that it was a lynx, called a bobcat in the United States, where Nikola lives.

He said that the forest prowler was "living well" as if he was at the "Taj Mahal".

"He kind of...looked at me and started growling," Nikola added.

Nikola, who lives in Arizona, said he was bewildered by the encounter, which led him to evacuate his other pets and contact the State Fish and Game Department. Arizona.

As he approached, the creature hissed at him (

Picture:

Arizona Department of Game and Fisheries)

Hoping that the bobcat would "go away on its own", he opened all the doors and windows.

After a 45-minute confrontation, the bobcat, which Nikola said had probably entered through a cat flap, moved away on its own.

But then he realized that one of his dogs, Squeakers, was missing.

The 10-year-old Chihuahua-Dachshund mix didn't reappear until the next day. And when he did, he suffered serious injuries that were almost certainly the result of a disagreement with the bobcat over who was going to sleep in his bed.

“He was in pretty bad shape,” Nikola said, “he was pretty torn.”

Squeakers had suffered deep scratches on his rear end, and Nikola took him to the vet.

The little dog underwent several hours of surgery, and is "very lucky to have survived".

His vaccinations were up to date, but Squeakers still needs to be quarantined in case he contracts rabies during his bobcat battle. p>

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