Good post Phil. Here in PA, with our bobcat season being closed for many, manyyears, and only recently re-opened on a very limited basis, we have grown some of the biggest cats possible.
A couple of years ago I took video of a bobcat in my field. One of my neighbors who was around 67 years old and has lived in these mountains all of his life, looked at the video and said "by God that's a mountian lion."
The tail was fairly long and it was a huge cat. I had seen the cat with my own eyes and through binocs and knew it was a bobcat, but the mere size of it convinced several people it had to be a cougar.
I sent the video to several experienced cat people who viewed it and estimated 60 pounds or more -- bobcat!
I emailed Lenoard Lee Rue III, and got some information from him on bobcats. There are some on record that exceed 70 pounds and at least one or two that have gone over the 80-pound mark.
Cats continue to grow their entire life (including tail length), if they have good food supplies. This cat probably caused quite a few "cougar" sightings.
Here is a picture of a very small cat for this area: