04-12-2008 12:05:00
The saga of a lucky bobcat
On February 19, Donna Bulmer, a long time friend, called saying she had questions about the behavior of a bobcat. She told me that as she was going out for firewood, she saw a bobcat hunched up on a ramp near the building, laying in the sun, where it stayed for 15 to 20 minutes. She watched the cat with binoculars, it was curled up and not looking healthy. The cat then went to the woods, after about 30 seconds it came back, went into the woodshed and laid down. She asked if this behavior was normal. I said probably not but I would have Donald talk with her. Donald also said the behavior was not that of a healthy animal.
He asked if there was a door on the shed. Donna said no. Donald told her to take a tarp, if she had one, nail it to the shed with a piece of strapping, this hopefully would keep the cat from leaving the building. He told her we would be heading up as soon as chores were done. After caring for the animals here we headed to The Forks to assess the condition of the cat, if need be catch it, and bring it back to our Center.
When we arrived at Donna’s home, Donald went to the shed to check on the cat. Donna had done an excellent job of closing up the entry to the shed, just as Donald had told her to do. She had also placed a piece of plywood and braced it with a board. We wentpole. Donald went into the shed and the cat was lying on top of a pile of wood. Donald looked around to be sure there were no other escape routes. He noticed open spaces in the eaves and asked Donna if she had any old blankets or towels he could stuff into the spaces in case the cat climbed up and tried to escape. In typical fashion of Donna, using her best bath towels meant nothing if they would prevent the cat from escaping in case it was sick and in need of help. Donald stuffed the towels into the eaves and then called me in to help with the rescue.
After several attempts he was able to get the catch pole cable behind a shoulder and on the body, he pulled it out of the space it had gone into to avoid us and dropped it into the pet carrier. Our assessment was that the cat was starving, we estimated it weighed about 10 pounds much less then it should have. The cat was about a year old.
After coffee and a piece of pumpkin pie that Donna had baked especially for us, we headed back to our Center to start rehabbing the cat, hopefully to get it to eat, put on weight and to return it to The Forks for release. Fortunately, the cat readily ate all food it was offered. Donna called again a few days later to ask if we thought the cat would be interest in a partridge that had hit a tree. Of course it would. When it was put into the cat’s pen, it jumped out, grabbed the bird and pulled it into its house. We wondered-did it eat the bird, the next day only feathers remained. We (or friends) picked up squirrels that were killed by vehicles so the cat would have all it needed for a balanced diet. Wild cats need fur, guts and bones of animals to get all the nutrients it needs.
Happily we can report that the cat was healthy enough to start eating right away. The cat has fattened up and displays its displeasure (we never did determine the sex) by snarling and hissing whenever we approached its pen. This is the reaction we want to see so there will not be the possibility of losing its fear of humans.
There would be more reports of starving cats in this same area. They were not as fortunate as the cat we trapped in Donna’s woodshed.
Carleen and Donald Cote operate the Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center on Rt. 3 in Vassalboro, anonprofit facility supported entirely by the