Poseidon Bobcat Rescue

I would have thought that time had stood still because Jamie was poised, net in the air, leaning impossibly into the space between us on one foot, and she had stopped moving.  Interns, Martin and Devin had also stopped mid step with her.  You could hear a pin drop into the high grass that was up past our knees, and the freezing cold water that was up over our ankles.  It was like how a live feed just freezes, but you aren’t sure if the connection has died, or if all has just gone very, very still.

 

My racing heart told me that time hadn’t stopped, but everything around the center attraction had.

 

At the center of this bizarre scene was a bobcat who had been seen vomiting on the side of the road.

 

A cat vomiting is hardly an emergency situation and certainly not one you would drive two hours to witness, but this one seemed to have extenuating circumstances.  Around 6PM a call came in from a Port Charlotte woman named Sandy, who said she had been on her way to the ER regarding her mother, and had seen a bobcat vomiting on the side of the road.  When asked to identify what the cat looked like, as most people don’t have any idea what a bobcat looks like, she said, “Well…it looks like a bobcat.”

 

Jamie asked what a bobcat looked like to Sandy and she said it had a six inch long tail and was half the size of a German Shepherd dog.  Before driving 4 hours, round trip, Jamie asked for a cell phone photo, but the woman was too busy with her mother and the hospital.  She said her husband had taken some video, but Jamie wasn’t sure they would be willing to pay the data transfer rate to send it.  I queried our database and found 103 people in Port Charlotte.  I emailed and asked if any of them would drive to the approximated address of Ogden Street, and tell me if there was really a bobcat there.

 

Over the next few hours, 11 people responded, and several drove to the scene.  All but two said there was no bobcat to be seen.  Meanwhile the caller did get a photo and did send the video, but we were already on our way.  Two of the people we emailed said they saw the bobcat and that they were certain they could wrestle him into a carrier, but Jamie convinced them not to try as the bobcat could hurt them or run off and be impossible for us to find and help.

 

Two hours seemed like two days, but Jamie used the time to prepare our interns for what was to come.  I’m always surprised that after dealing with bobcats, and knowing how mean they can be, that when we say we need volunteers to help rescue one in the wild, they are so eager and fearless to help.  Even when answering the question, “what’s the worst you’ve ever been hurt rescuing a bobcat” by saying, “I haven’t had to peel one off my face yet,” they are still keen to give it a shot.

 

As we pulled up on the scene, Sandy’s husband was dutifully keeping an eye on the bobcat.  He brought us up to speed with important facts like how long the cat had been sitting there (5 hours by this time) how close he had been able to get without the cat running (about 10 feet) and he gave us the low down on bobcats in the area, and how they get along with the domestic cats.  He and I both held flashlights on the bobcat’s face, so that Jamie, Martin and Devin could circle around behind him and on the side that was open to the road.

 

The last thing you ever want to do in a bobcat rescue is chase the wounded cat into the path of another car.

 

The bobcat was on a dry patch of ground, surrounded by the cold water and knee high saw grass.  Jamie asked me to make little sounds with my feet, each time he tensed as if he was going to bolt, to divert his attention away from the approaching captors.

 

He looked pretty washed up; like he had given up and was just waiting to die.  He smelled like he had been dead for three days.  It was gaggingly wretched to breathe the air surrounding him.  Despite that though, you could tell that if he could make a break for it, he was going to