A remarkable photographic image was snapped on the morning of June 13, 2006, in a backyard in the Midwestern state of Nebraska.

Omaha television station KETV-7 broadcast the picture on June 14, and it appeared to be an animal unlike any most people have seen locally.

In the short dispatch, the Nebraska news staff reported that:

Mary Ann Carta lives near 138th and Hamilton streets, and she took some pictures of the animal that she saw. She said it could be a bobcat, but it has her scared about taking her morning walk or allowing her grandchildren to play outside.

"I was not afraid at the moment. I was in the house, but I was just thinking about yesterday with the grandkids it was like, what would I have done," Carta said.

An expert at the Henry Doorly Zoo is examining the pictures. He thinks it could be a feral cat.

What are we to make of the hint of striping on the back? The long canid-like legs? And long thin tail?

The image does have an cryptid canid or hynea-like appearance, reminding me of the Shunka Warak’in taxidermy mount from the 1880s, seen and recorded from the Yellowstone area, as pictured below, and discussed in Cryptozoology A to Z and elsewhere on Cryptomundo.

Image Enhancement

Click on image for full-size version

Enhancement was provided in 2006 by Cryptomundo reader Annie. 

Three years later, what do you think?