Tribute to Skip the Bobcat

On 9/13/12 Skip the bobcat was discovered having a violent and prolonged seizure and foaming at the mouth.  Dr. Wynn was contacted and the staff were instructed to give him medication that would hopefully ease the seizure. Unfortunately his seizure was too severe and he died shortly after.  Gale gave him chest compressions and Jamie gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation to try and revive him to no avail.

 

We searched his enclosure for snakes, poisonous frogs, and any other clues that may have caused this reaction.  We found one dead toad with a hole in his abdomen and are working to identify it.  We will be performing a necropsy to see if we can discover the cause of his death.  Blood samples have been taken to Dr. Wynn.  Jamie is driving him to the University of Florida for a necropsy because of the concern for rabies, since he was foaming at the mouth and she was giving him CPR.  He's been vaccinated, but we have to take every precaution.

 

Skip was much loved by a huge community including our volunteers.  I am trying to contact each of the SkipAHolics  by private message and ask that they do not post to facebook or social sites, including the SkipAHolics group for at least 2 days to give our volunteers time to find out from checking their Big Cat email.

 

Since we usually ask that our people wait a week before broadcasting such news in order that their fellow volunteers do not find out in ways that diminish their importance as onsite caregivers, Jamie emailed everyone at BigCatRescue.org with this notification in the hopes that they check their Big Cat email daily.  Please do not post anything about Skip, or even hint of his passing until 9am EST Sunday Sept. 16.  2012 so that our volunteers do not find out the hard way by checking into Facebook.

 

Thank you for caring so much about Skip and all of our animals.  I must say that Skip looked the picture of health today and that was largely due to your loving thoughts and care.  If it turns out he died hunting toads, at least he was being who he was designed to be; a magnificent predator.

 

To see videos of Skip go to http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/skip-cam-episodes

 

Skip's Rescue:  I was right in the middle of sending an email to LaWanna about some promotions she was dreaming up for the ChatBigCats.com site when Honey Wayton, our gift shop manager called and relayed an urgent message.

 

A woman had called to say they had found a bobcat alongside the highway and had it loose in their SUV and wanted to know what to do next because it was getting pretty mad.

 

Obviously this was their first bobcat rescue, because no one makes that mistake twice.  I called the woman who said her name was Nici and she said that the bobcat laying alongside the road had caught her eye.  Her husband, Skip had chased him down with a blanket, scooped him up and put him in the back of the car.  He was dragging his back end, so the chase wasn’t much of a challenge, but picking up a VERY mad bobcat made him a fury of claws and teeth.

 

Nici said they were two blocks from their home and that they could just leave him in the car for us to deal with, if we wanted.  As I frantically brought up a map to see that she was 2 and a half hours away, I didn’t think that was a great idea.  I asked if she had a pet carrier that they could just plop the blanketed cat into before he fully regained his senses.

 

She didn’t but her friend Lorie did.  Turns out that all three of them had visited Big Cat Rescue in the past and were eager to do anything they could to help save this skinny, crushed little bobcat.  My instructions had been to completely envelope the cat in thick blanketing and take the top off the carrier, if necessary, to accommodate the entire bundle, and then bolt the top back on.  I don’t know why that didn’t work for them, but I called Nici back a few minutes later, after starting Jamie on her way to Mt. Plymouth, and Nici said, “I hope you guys will name this bobcat