I'm flying in to hunt with Bob & company at Hunter's Creek and one of our party is bound and determined to take a cat. (I know, the best laid plans).

Does anyone have any information about how to care for it post-harvest to prepare for taxidermy? We don't know anyone in the area and don't have any specific experience in this area. Preventing hair slip while preserving the best looking cat seems to be our top concern(s).

Any thoughts?

Clean off any blood before you freeze it

Get it as cold as you can as soon as you can. Don't worry about washing too much, taxidermist will use borax and what not to clean the fur when it's dry. But as long as it gets on ice within the first couple hours it should be good. Don't seal it in a bag or anything while it's warm just set in the ice chest or in the freezer to get it cold before you bag it. Should be fine in a trash bag after it's cold

Yep. The blood isn't really an issue and spot on with the bag

Wonder if my grandpa made me do that to get a kick out of it... that SOB I been doing that ever since I started getting things mounted

Taxidermist I use told me to wash off any blood, make sure it is 100% dry, then bag and freeze. Bag doesn't need to be air tight just enough to keep ice off of it.

If you can skin it that is the best thing you can do ASAP then you can bag it and put it in a freezer (ask the taxidermist you use how he wants it skinned)or put it in something air tight and put it on ice so it doesn't get wet.
I know sometimes this is a hard thing to do I have guided a bunch of predator hunts and during the cold months you can let them sit in the bed of a truck till the end of the night usually and put them in a freezer when you get in and skin them when you get time. If you stop to skin you wouldn't have that much time to hunt it takes a while cats are thin skinned you have to be careful.
Summer months it is good to get them in a freezer ASAP whole, or skin them and freeze them asap. Skinning them ASAP is the best thing you can do bar none leave the feet and head in and freeze them. Do not get them wet or wash off blood water amplifies and speeds up bacteria which is what causes slippage most of the time. During the tanning process all of the blood etc… is cleaned off of them. The longer the skin stays on the body after they are dead the worse off you get due to bacteria.
For a bobcat shot in Texas to leave the state you have to have a cites tag very simple to get but they are only open mon-fri and sometimes you have to call in advance to make sure a warden is available to identify sex etc… to get the tag.
If you ship a cat hide overnight back to someone or if you ship it whole frozen back to someone this can be extremely expensive and you take the risk of it not getting there overnight and spoiling. The best thing is to find a taxidermist that can turn and salt the animal or have it tanned then ship it back and they can also usually get your cites tags for you or I know we do this all the time.