Aspen Echo

Female Cougar
8/30/97 – 7/14/17

Aspen sports the kinked tail and mid-back cowlick that are common to the Florida Panther. She also has a very reddish hue to her coat.

Aspen is definitely one of the more hyper active cougars at Big Cat Rescue. She has no trouble at all entertaining herself by crashing through the thick palmettos in her enclosure chasing after lizards, squirrels, and anything else that moves. She even likes to stalk Keepers as they clean her enclosure in the mornings.

Quite the character, Aspen is very silly except for at dinner time, when she transforms into the wild animal that she is. Her growls and cougar screams can be very intimidating.

Aspen Echo was born here back before we learned that no privately held exotic cats serve any sort of conservation purpose.  Back then, in the pre-Internet era of the 90’s, the only people we could turn to for advice were breeders and dealers who lied to us about the necessity of breeding exotic cats to save them.  As soon as we learned better we stopped breeding and began campaigning to end the abuse of breeding wild cats for life in cages.

9/25/16 Vet Visits Aspen Echo and Others

11/7/16 Update on Aspen Cougar

Aspen Echo will be seen by the vet in the Windsong Memorial Hospital today and will get X-rays.  She’s 19 and has advanced arthritis.  Until now she’s never been sick a day in her life.  She’s been on supplements and later pain meds for her arthritis.

3/17/17 Aspen Echo Treated for UTI

During this exam we found that she had a large kidney stone and an urinary tract infection.  She was put on medication for the infection, but at her age she wouldn’t be a candidate for lithotripsy as it would probably kill her.  All we could do is give her supportive care, lots of water bowls, lots of blood cicles and pain management.

6/25/17 Just a Month Ago She Was Quick to Get Up

7/8/17 Was the Last Walkabout Featuring Aspen Echo

7/14/17 Aspen Echo Has Died

Aspen Echo would have turned 20 next month, but her advanced kidney disease has ended her life.  Yesterday is the first day she refused to eat well (she ate a pound of food) and she refused her meds.  Wild cats are so stoic, and there have been many times that we thought we should euthanize her because of her advanced arthritis and her kidney stones.  We didn’t because she was always purring and loved to eat.  She’d practically drag herself across the cage, not to miss the extra morsel that came with evening meds.  I guess she wanted to pick her own time and way to leave us.  We will all miss her.  You can post your tributes to her at the bottom of this page.

Below are some of the photos and videos of how we will always remember Aspen Echo.