Tribute to Midnight, Rain and Storm

 

At only 6 months old and quite unexpectedly, Storm has passed away.  Though he was so young, his loss is still extremely hard for us.  As Jamie Veronica, President of Big Cat Rescue recounts about his passing, "An image of him as a baby flashed through my mind, a memory so clear of this spunky and voracious eater.  Just a wobbly little kitten he had eaten so much turkey for dinner one evening.  He stopped to take a break and had fallen asleep face down in his plate of food.

 

As he lay there, it was heard to believe that he was not going to wake up in a few moments and continue on with his antics.  At the end of the room there stood a massive collection of bins with blankets of all shapes and sizes.  I pulled out the top bin.  It was light with the weight of only a small blanket or towel.  I opened the lid only to be struck in the heart once more.  A lump swelled with in my throat and my eyes welled up once more.  I reached out with the same hand that had just grasped the lifeless body of Storm the bobcat and timidly retrieved the last linen in the bin.  It was a red fleece blanket with white snowflakes adorning it.  I pulled the cozy blanket in close and closed my eyes.  I recalled the night nearly five months ago when I retrieved the three kittens from their rescuer in Alabama.

 

I remember walking into the room to see a cardboard box on the coffee table.  I pulled open the top of the box and peered inside.  My eyes fixed on three tiny balls of spotted fluff snuggled up in the warm of this very same red fleece blanket with white snowflakes adorning it."  Storm's life was short, but he was a very famous little bobcat.  The story, videos, and news coverage of Storm is summarized below...

 

MIDNIGHT, RAIN AND STORM'S ARRIVAL

 

With a gun in one hand and a sack of bobcat kittens in the other, an Alabama hunter proudly plopped the newborns down on the counter and asked the veterinary assistant to raise them up for him so he could give them to his kids as pets.

 

The vet tech was stunned, but quickly recomposed herself to tell the hunter she would do it for him so as to rescue the babies from such an awful fate. She immediately began scouring the Internet for an expert in rehab and release. When she called Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue it was agreed that the kittens would come to Florida, be raised for re-release back to the wild and the paperwork began.

 

It took three days to secure the Florida import permit and time was of the essence. The only kitten formula available to the clinic was one that often causes serious dehydration in bobcat kittens. The second more critical factor was that their eyes would be opening any day and if they were to ever live free it was imperative that they not bond to humans. They never make good pets, but the bonding that takes place during the nursing stage could make them fearless of people and that would get them into trouble as adults.

 

While Big Cat Rescue President and resident Rehabber, Jamie Veronica, hit the road to begin a 24 hour road trip to rescue the baby bobcats, Big Cat Rescue put out a call to all of the Tampa animal based charities and on all of their social networks that they needed a nursing mother cat who had kittens of her own. Jack Talman of FosteringIsCool.com found a mother cat but her kittens were too old and she was going into heat so there was concern that she may not have milk nor interest for new babies.

 

Big Cat Rescuer, Merrill Kramer, called on Rick Chaboudy, CEO of Suncoast Animal League in Palm Harbor, FL and he said he thought he had a good candidate. Her name was Bobbi because of her half tail and she had given birth to 6 kittens of her own and then adopted two more. He found foster parents for all but two of the kittens and brought Bobbi and her brood over to see what she thought of diversifying her family.

 

Introductions like these can be very scary because the mother cat can be overly protective of her own