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

Nikita Lion is NOT a Barbary lion

 

She only has two of the 17 DNA markers typical of the Barbary or Atlas Lion.  The Barbary lion is extinct in the wild and only three have been identified as being a high probability of Barbary or Black maned ancestry.  WildLink International looked at 327 lions who exhibited common signs of Barbary, such as bigger, darker manes, bigger bodies overall, black ticking on the golden fur, etc. and determined that only two males and Sarabi the lone female were even close to the Barbary lineage.

 

Sarabi had 14 of the 17 DNA markers, making her the closest living example of a Barbary lion.  Sadly, Sarabi, died of cancer in 2007, so there are no legitimate breeding programs.   There are many backyard breeders who claim to be breeding Barbary lions and even Wikipedia has a false claim of Barbary cubs in 2010 in Texas, but WildLink International had folded long before then when the King of Morocco died and no legitimate organization has pursued the quest to bring back this extinct species.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and 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 do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

July 2012  Carole presented this at the Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, D.C.

 

One person can be the cat-alyst for change. If you are sitting in this audience, YOU might be the kind of person who has the passion to overcome the impossible in order to help save thousands, or millions of animals. Rose Church is one of those people.

 

How many of you have heard about Tony the tiger who has been kept at a Louisiana truck stop for the past decade?

 

How many of you have heard of, or recognize Ian Somerhalder from the Vampire Diaries?

 

Ian Sommerhalder

 

Rose Church is a pro bono attorney for the Ian Somerhalder foundation and she wanted to get Ian involved in freeing Tony the tiger. Ian has 2,300,000 followers on Twitter and she thought that getting him to Tweet about Tony might help raise awareness about Tony the truck stop tiger. She contacted me to ask what Ian could ask his followers to do.

 

Even though we get more complaints about Tony than any other single situation and have been working to free him for the past decade, we had exhausted our ability to do anything. We had hired the tiger a lawyer and had shown up with plenty of supporters to testify, but it had become obvious that the state of Louisiana was not going to do anything. USDA has revoked the license to display the tiger, but that rarely seems to stop exhibitors from exhibiting.

 

The ALDF (Animal Legal Defense Fund) had continued the fight in the only venue left, which was the legal system. Court cases wind their way through the system like a river of molasses so there wasn’t much anyone could do. It seemed like the whole world already knew about Tony, so having Ian Tweet his audience didn’t seem like a terribly productive thing to do. If we had the help of a celebrity we told Rose that he could make a far great impact for thousands of tigers like Tony by educating his fan base about the issue that causes so many tigers and other big cats to end up being bred, exploited and discarded.

 

The underlying cause for almost all of this suffering is cub petting.

 

I explained to Rose that it was big business in the U.S. for breeders to charge the public to pet or pose with big cat cubs. One claims to have made $23,000 in a single weekend at a mall, charging people to have interaction with the cubs and / or have their photos made with the cubs. The breeders and dealers were doing these pay to play sessions with older lions and tigers up until the death of a high school student named Haley Hildebrand.

 

Thanks to pressure from the media and then the public, the USDA issued a FAQ sheet suggesting that cubs under 8 weeks should not be used this way. In a separate appellate court case the judge ruled that cubs over the age of 12 weeks were too dangerous for such interaction. The unintended result was creating a loophole whereby breeders could still charge customers to touch cubs who were between 8-12 weeks old. That resulted in massive breeding in order to have profitable cubs to use. Since their shelf life was only 4 weeks, breeders decided to produce lion and tiger cubs every month so that they would always have “legal” age cubs to use.

 

Rose could hardly believe her ears. First of all, she had never seen these mall exhibits where tiger breeders set up shop and offer cubs as photo props all day over a four day weekend. Second, she couldn’t believe that USDA hadn’t done something to close that 4 week window they had created.

 

It can be anything from fixing a broken toy to curing some social ill; have you ever had one of those moments where you see a situation and think to yourself, “I can fix this.” This was Rose’s moment. She said to herself, “I can do something about this!”

 

Rose figured there at LOTS of animal protection groups out there and if they all worked together they could fix this thing. But, she doubted that anyone would listen to her if she made the suggestion that they do so. She took the information to her professor from Law

Cats We’ve Offered to Take

Some cats you might never meet are those that we are asked to take but who never end up here because their owners would rather send them somewhere awful than to contract with us to never own another exotic cat.  The following are just the ones so far in 2012.

 

1/26/12 A Serval is “found” wandering and a man emailed and asked if we would take the cat.  When I told him that we would need him to contract with us not to own another exotic cats he responded by saying he had sent it to the Conservator’s Center in NC.

 

5/1/12  Holly MacCluen said she found a Savannah Cat and asked us to take her.  We were able to convince her to keep the cat herself.

 

5/3/12  Kate Carpenter said she thought she had bought a Savannah Cat, but it turned out to be a Serval and she wasn’t licensed to keep it in FL.  We offered to take her if Kate would contract with us not to own another exotic cat but she responded by saying she sold the cat to Drinkwater Cattery in Hudson, FL to use for breeding more hybrids.

 

5/20/12  An 80 year old woman in MI has a pet serval that she can’t care for any more so a friend of hers contacted us to see if we would take him. We said we will, if they will contract with us not to own another exotic cat, but so far they haven’t done so.

 

6/8/12  John Culbertson in Ohio responded to the new law that will require him to register his animals in order to keep them by trying to unload them.  He is trying to dump 2 tigers, 2 lions and a cougar.  We have asked if he will contract to never own exotic cats again, but he has not responded.

 

6/10/12  We were not contacted in advance about this tiger, but on ExoticAnimalTV.com Joe said that he just rescued a starving 17 year old tigress from a pet owner in CA.  Thinking she is a purebred Sumatran tiger (very unlikely) Joe said he wants to get cubs from her before she dies.

 

We had also offered to take the bobcat and cougars from the Collins Zoo raid last year, but they went to Carolina Tiger Rescue and Wildcat Sanctuary.  In reading their newsletters I see that there is some concern that the Collins Zoo owner may be able to get the cats back.  I can’t even imagine how awful it would be to rescue animals from conditions like this photo and be compelled by the court to send them back.

 

6/14/12 We were asked to take a Jungle Cat hybrid by the "Bengal Cat Rescue" group because they said she had come, along with a number of hybrids from a hoarder.  We said we would take her just to keep her from ending up back in the trade, even though we typically do not rescue domestic hybrids.  They took issue with the fact that we do not condone the trade in hybrids and said they would find her another place, more in line with their beliefs.  The cat bites, sprays and is by their own description far too wild to be kept as a pet, so they might change their minds.

 

Above is from volunteer newsletter today.

 

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 do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

Crazy Horse Bobcat Dies

Thanks to some of the very best volunteers in the industry and the processes we have in place for noting changes in our cats, Crazy Horse was observed to be off his food and acting strange about 3 weeks ago.  To look at him, you couldn't see the mass in his armpit, until he was sedated and laid out on his back.  The mass was the size of a grapefruit, and was purple and red from infection.  We sent out samples for testing, but were pretty sure the results would come back as cancer.  We wondered if it would be kinder to him to just put him out of his misery right then, rather than wait for test results and subject him to being confined in the Cat Hospital.  At the age of 17, we feared his life would soon be cut short and we were torn as to what would be best for Crazy Horse.  We opted to wait a few days and see.  The tests came back mixed.  Three tests.  Three different results.

 

Meanwhile he had been on antibiotics for the infection and living in the West Boensch, onsite Cat Hospital, under the every vigilant watch of the Skip-A-Holics and our staff.  We thought he would try to kill himself to escape the hospital cages, but turned out to be a very patient patient.  He got his name because he is about half crazy and has never liked being anywhere near people.

 

About a week ago, he was re-evaluated by the vets to see if the antibiotics had helped.  The swelling had gone down to about the size of an orange and all of the red and purple coloring had returned to healthy flesh tones.  He was on the mend, but we still didn't know if the mass were an abscess or cancer.

 

On May 31, we took him in to see Dr. Wynn at the Ehrlich Animal Hospital.  We had some cause to be hopeful, as he appeared to have gained a little weight, but he had been refusing to eat off a plate.  He would only eat if fed from a stick, so we wondered if perhaps the mass was putting pressure against his throat or chest and causing the discomfort.  As you can see in the photos below, the mass had continued to shrink a bit.  It was the size of a small orange and moved pretty freely, so Dr. Wynn felt that she could surgically remove the mass, and we opted to try.

 

Three hours later, the mass had been separated from all of the muscle and blood supply lines, and the incision was sewn and stapled shut.  I have a picture of the mass, which was the size of Dr. Wynn's palm, but it was just too gruesome to post here.  During the exam Dr. Wynn had discovered a bad tooth, so as soon as Crazy Horse's armpit was sewn up he was rushed to another surgery suite to have the tooth removed and a flap made over the hole.  To keep him from chewing at the staples, which come out in a week or so, he was fitted with an e collar.  The mass is being sent out again to see if we can get consistent results this time on the whole thing instead of just the biopsies.

 

We don't know how much time this has bought for Crazy Horse.  We are always ambivalent about these kinds of procedures.  On the one hand, cancer is often an exotic cat's get-out-of-jail-free card because we don't want to submit them to traumatic surgery, nauseating cancer treatment drugs and only have them live a few months in misery.  On the other hand we have removed tumors and had cats live another year of a pretty good life where they seemed happy up until the end.  It's always a tough call and we make each one based upon what we believe would be in the best interest of the cat involved.

 

We appreciate that your support makes it possible for us to make those hard decisions entirely upon the best interest of the cat and not out of a lack of funding or a lack of understanding.

 

Just as I finished writing this our Operations Manager called me to tell me that Crazy Horse the bobcat has died.  And now I sit here wondering; did we do the right thing?  Should we have put him to sleep three weeks ago?  Did we just make his last three weeks miserable by keeping inside the Cat Hospital?  Or did we a

Backyard Bobs and Crazy Bobs

 

For those who attended our last Volunteer Appreciation Day you might remember that one of the questions was to name the three big fur farm rescues by year and number of cats saved.  The answer was 1993 - 56 cats, 1994 - 28 cats and 1995 - 22 cats.  You know the cats from 1995 as The Backyard Bobs and The Crazy Bobs.  What you might not know is how they got those gang names.

 

The fenced area where guests wait for their tour used to be the backyard of what was Carole's house in 1995.  Friendly cats all lived together there and included The Backyard Bobs, Little Feather, Raindance and others.  Apache and Divinity were part of the Backyard crew.  They came and went from the backyard to a fenced area inside what is now the main gift shop room.

 

Cats who had been raised by their mothers at the fur farms were wilder and lived together in a group called The Crazy Bobs.  They came and went via a pet door into a separate bedroom of the house.  Selena, Crazy Horse, Levi, and Tiger Lily were all part of the Crazy bob crew.  I don't remember how it happened, but as some point Selena ended up in the Backyard crew because even though she doesn't care for people, she loved Takoma, Apache and Divinity.  We couldn't catch Selena to return her to the Crazy Crew, because she is such a little wildling, but it turned out for the best.  It's a love affair that has lasted 17 years.

 

Photo was circa 1996-1997.

 

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 do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

From Cathy C yesterday:  Hello Carole and Patty!

I hope your travels to Columbus went smoothly and that you are getting settled into your hotel.  Fortunately the weather is pretty nice here today, though it's supposed to thunderstorm tonight.

 

I will be taking you around to your appointments tomorrow.  You may need to bear with me because I am not an old hand at getting around the Statehouse, but our legislative appointments are all in the Riffe Building, which is the tall building across High Street from the Capitol.  That is pretty easy to get around once you figure out the elevator system.

 

How about I pick you up at your hotel at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow morning?  We can make the short drive to the Capitol, which has underground parking, then walk to the Riffe.  That should  be plenty of time to get us to our 9 a.m. appointment.  The hearing is 3-5 p.m. and again starting at 7 p.m.  I'll have to leave you all briefly at 5 p.m. for an appointment to talk about this bill with my own House representative, but I can meet up with the group for dinner wherever you all decide to go.  My husband, Paul Becker, and I will both be testifying again, hopefully during the 7 p.m. time since he has to be at University of Dayton every day this week.

 

As for tonight, if you are up for it, the Short North is a short distance from downtown and has tons of restaurants, shops, small businesses, etc.  Northstar has the best black bean veggie burger in the country (IMHO), and Z Pizza next door has a great vegan and vegetarian pizza.  Glad you all are here, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

 

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 do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

HSUS flew me to Ohio 

to weigh in on the big cat ban following the Zanesville massacre.  (Did I mention that I coined that phrase the day after the event?  The media ran with it and now everyone refers to it as the Zanesville Massacre)

 

Holiday Inn Columbus Downtown Capital Square  Confirmation number: 65094014

Best Flexible Rate 2 Double Beds Non-smoking Upload Pictures From Department: Ohio State Director (000-0-414 OH State Director), Purpose of Trip--Be Specific: SB 310 Exotic Pet Hearing in House - witness, Project Code: 00-12094 Ohio Ballot Measure, Reimbursed by another Org.?: No, Is this a consultant?: no

 

Mon 7-May-12 and Thu 10-May-12 at 175 E Town St  Columbus, OH 43215 United States of America  1 (614) 221-3281   Fax 1 (614) 221-5266

 

Joe Schreibvogel and his minions were all over me at the hearing.  Patty was a great ally during all of that.  This is her recollection of that attack:

 

“We were there to testify on behalf of the legislation after the Zanesville event.  Joe shoved a microphone in front of my face, with his camera man recording, and said something like I'm here to interview you. I said, condescendingly (which is very atypical of me, but I wanted to get rid of him) "ME? Be interviewed by YOU?" and he said "Perfect! That's just what I wanted. Perfect." and they left...* almost ran away. I think he was embarrassed.  There were four undercover cops assigned to us, and the woman from HSUS was with us, and I believe she had been threatened by them, her life threatened, by I don't know if that was by email or what. 

 

And then in mid 2014, Joe made a threat, I forget via what means, about going to a conference that I was going to speak at and something about me being careful or something like that or maybe he just said he'd see me there. I forget. It was probably in one of his videos. It was enough that my husband put his foot down about me attending and speaking, because it was the last thing I was going to do as Executive Director. So Kelly went instead, though I had filled her in. The conference was on government property and I guess I or someone sent a letter to homeland security about it, or to the the local sheriff, and they sent it on to Homeland security. Anyway, someone told them the names of his thugs that were going to be there with him. 

 

As it turns out, only they came (not Joe) and Homeland security was watching for them and surrounded the car, had them get out, searched the car and told them to leave and that if any of them stepped foot on federal property (that day?), they would be arrested.  I don't know if the GFAS files might have some letters on file about that. Deb Leahy at HSUS Wildlife Dept might remember. She was at the conference. It was held in conjunction with the USDA I believe. That was the conference where Kelly said something (that I think Joe broadcast about later I think) about sanctuaries in it for the money....which was a total distortion, of something she said.

 

And remember, Joe sent a letter to all the GFAS sanctuaries bashing you. I don't know if any of them might still have it, or if GFAS kept a copy.  If I can help further or you have questions, feel free to ask. Sorry my memory isn't better!”  - Patty 

*Joe and crew ran because I was coming in between Patty and them and had blood in my eye.  I wasn’t going to stand for them intimidating this sweet, little woman.

 

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

Rufus Bobcat is Just Too Cute! In case you haven't reached cuteness overload yet! Rufus the bobcat kitten cuddles a toy as he settles in for a nap after a long day of exploring outside. A few days ago Big Cat Rescue helped 2 bobcat kittens in Fresno, CA. They had been taken from a den because the person thought their mom had been killed. We were able to find California wildlife experts who are working to either reunite the mom and kittens, or they will raise them for release if she doesn't come back for them. We called our friends at the rehab center in Ramona which is run by the Humane Society of the United States. Ali runs the facility and does a lot of bobcat work, but she was 5 hours away, so she called Cathy Garner, the Founder of the Fresno Wildlife Rehab center, which is right next to where the kittens were found. On April 18, Cathy contacted us saying, "Hello All, We are supposed to meet Kevin tonight and get the two orphaned bobcats from him at that time. We have successfully rehabbed many bobcats in the past and have the legal permits to do that. Thank you for your assistance in connecting Kevin with our rehab." It is only because of you who show up to help clean, feed, lead tours, train volunteers and do all of the hard work necessary in running Big Cat Rescue that we are able to help exotic cats all over the world. A big shout out to all of you for helping these bobcat kittens in their quest to get back to their mom! Remember, this is baby season and mother bobcats and cougars have to hunt, so if you find kittens, please leave them alone unless you are sure they are orphaned. Tribute to Rufus Bobcat Even though we knew it was touch and go for him every day, he just seemed so happy and content in between episodes that we all find it hard to believe that he is gone. In just four months he touched so many people and brought so many together for the well being and safe keeping of his kind. What a brave little angel.

 

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 do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

You can help feed the cats at no cost to you using Amazon Smile!

Visit BigCatRescue.org/Amazon-smile

 

You can see photos, videos and more, updated daily at BigCatRescue.org

 

Check out our main channel at YouTube.com/BigCatRescue

 

Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.

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