Give Her a Second Chance Letter about Tommie Girl

 

On Mar 5 we got a call from the Florida Wildlife Commission asking if we could help a blind bobcat that had been reported by the Manager of the Cemex Mine. His name is Tommie and he loves the wildlife that calls his land a sanctuary. He knew there was something desperately wrong with this little kitten from the first day he saw her, which was about two weeks before.

 

We made arrangements to drive up to the mine on Mar 6 to set a humane trap because the kitten had not been seen since Feb 27. Jamie and I drove up with a trap, nets, carrier, and bait for four days and Tommie Deaner agreed to check and set the trap daily.

 

On the way to Center Hill Tommie texted that the bobcat was in sight and that he had caught some fish for her and was feeding her. Jamie texted back to stop because traffic had us running a half hour late. Since there was no way to get a fish away from a starving bobcat, Tommie improvised and got a box out of the trash to trap her in.

 

When Jamie and I drove up we were waved to the scene by Cemex staff. When we saw the box we were thrilled at the prospect of NOT having to chase a bobcat all over place. The problem was that the box didn’t have a bottom.  We slid a piece of plywood under the box, like you would pick up a spider with a cup and cardboard (per Jamie) and then put the whole thing in the van. The plan was to shift her from the box to the carrier inside the van, so that if the bobcat escaped, she was at least trapped in the van… with us. Well, that part wasn’t very appealing, but it was better than the risk of losing her and having her starve to death.

 

If you have never seen Jamie net a cat; you haven’t seen art in motion. Quicker than a blink she had her in the net and backed up to the carrier door. Since she really couldn’t see well enough to put up much of a fight, we got her in the carrier pretty neatly. She growled for a while, but the belly full of fish and the swaying motion of the van for an hour and a half put her right to sleep.

 

She has tested negative for all of the major cat killers, except her Toxo test, which is still pending. She is suffering from starvation, blindness and parasites and is being treated with the hopes that she will regain her sight as she improves. She has seen an eye specialist and she thinks there is hope for restoring her site.

 

Another Blind Bobcat Kitten Rescue:  The baby bobcat came in to the SC Wildlife Rehabber, JoAnne on Dec 4 weighing 4.2 lbs, with a broken jaw, split canine and comatose.  They figured he had been hit by a car, but couldn’t believe that he survived.  After he woke up from the coma he was pretty loopy, but they figured the impact had done brain damage.

 

They had to wire the jaw shut, tube feed him and removed the broken canine. He is still only 5.7 lbs, but is eating solids on his own and doing much better despite walking into walls and getting stuck in corners. If he comes to a corner, he just sits down and waits, and waits, and waits, as if he cannot figure out that he is not trapped.  He was having bad and frequent seizures, but those have almost subsided.  He will be living in the on site Cat Hospital until he is bigger and stronger. We have set up a UStream web cam at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bigcathospital where you can watch his progress.

 

I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to