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Rescued baby bobcat mistaken for lost kitten




This baby bobcat named Pearl was mistaken for an orphaned kitten and brought to True Rescue, a cat shelter in Mt. Juliet. Staff members there quickly realized it wasn’t a kitten.SUBMITTED

This baby bobcat named Pearl was mistaken for an orphaned kitten and brought to True Rescue, a cat shelter in Mt. Juliet. Staff members there quickly realized it wasn’t a kitten.SUBMITTED

A Mt. Juliet couple rescued a tiny, wide-eyed feral kitten that wandered into their back yard, but quickly learned it was not your average feline.

On June 17, the couple brought the kitty to True Rescue (a non-profit cat rescue shelter) on Lebanon Road, but a professional there immediately knew that the animal inside the cat carrier absolutely wasn’t a lost kitten but was actually a baby bobcat.

True Rescue Executive Director Amy Simcick has worked with cats for years and said she’s seen just about everything in her career.

“This baby bobcat was a first,” she said. “When I looked into the carrier all I saw was a gigantic head.”

The baby bobcat also had massive paws and claws for its small size. And a bobtail. Other than these features, at first glance non-experts could maybe think it was a tabby.

“We had a couple come to our place distraught after they found a kitten in their yard and it ran onto their back porch,” Simcick said. “They said it was really wild, but the husband was able to capture it and put it into a carrier.”

A staff member asked Simcick to examine the animal.

“I said, you know this isn’t a kitten, but a baby bobcat,” Simcick said. “It actually was in pretty good shape health wise. It had the telltale triangular markings on its ears as well.”

True Rescue staff member Chelle Lamb has experience with wildlife and also works at wildlife refuge center Walden’s Puddle in Joelton. When she heard a strange growl coming out of the little creature, she contacted her co-workers there.

Simcick’s son transported the baby bobcat to Walden’s Puddle. However, there were no orphaned bobcats there. The little one’s best chance of eventually being released into the wild, is to bond with other baby bobcats.

“It was very obvious this little one was a bobcat,” said Lamb. “It’s way more built than a baby kitten. Stacked and muscled for one so small.”

The bobcat was then taken to For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue in Chattanooga where they had two baby bobcats on site. The staff at For Fox Sake named the bobcat Pearl after determining it’s 2 pounds and probably around five weeks old.

“She’s doing great,” For Fox Sake Executive Director Juniper Russo said. “She’s a little anemic, but we are fixing that. That’s normal for this age. We had two other baby bobcats, but sadly baby Sapphire had to be put down. But baby Ruby is doing well and will be a perfect sibling when both she and Pearl are out of quarantine.”

Russo said when the bobcats see each other across the room, they seem comforted and will be friends soon. Because both seem to be healthy, Russo said there’s no reason they can’t be released in the wild, perhaps in November.

“Baby bobcats normally leave their mom at about nine months or so,” she said.

“It’s good to know today we were able to get Pearl to such a great facility and soon she and her new friend might be able to flourish in their natural habitat,” Simcick said.

Both Simcick and Russo said if a wild creature is observed by people and appear to be alone, it’s best to observe it for a while and usually the mother is nearby. However, if an animal appears injured or in distress, contact the county Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

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