Female Caracal

DOB 5/1/2009 approx.

Arrived 6/6/2017

Moved to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge on December 29, 2023

Chaos is a caracal who was born in 2009 and came to Big Cat Rescue in 2017. When the Ohio Department of Agriculture learned of the illegal possession of Chaos the caracal at a breeding cattery, they seized Chaos and a male caracal named Cyrus and a serval named Zucari and asked Big Cat Rescue to come pick them up and give them a forever home. All of the cats had been declawed, which was illegal.

In Ohio Chaos shared a room in a basement with Cyrus. The Agency told us that the only opportunity Cyrus and Chaos had to be outside was a small outdoor cage attached to the basement. They were put in the basement together for the purpose of breeding caracals and hybrid cats. Big cats in the wild normally have litters every few years because the females have to raise their young and teach them to hunt before having another litter. But at captive breeding facilities like this the females are bred incessantly which is believed to promote mammary cancer.

Fortunately, the misery of her first 8 years is over and now Chaos spends her days enjoying her spacious cat-a-tat.

Cyrus and Chaos the Caracals, along with Zucari the Serval have arrived. Come along as they are released into their forever homes.

The cats were owned by a hybrid breeder in Ohio who willingly surrendered 2 caracals and 1 serval to the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) when the agency discovered she owned the cats in violation of Ohio law.

The two Caracals were housed in a cage in the basement and had access to a small enclosures outside via a door, they were house together and are both intact.

The serval was housed in an out door dog kennel type cage with approximately two dozen hybrids and domestic cats.

All three cats were sedated on Monday morning for a basic exam to have blood drawn to be microchips and to get vaccinated.

They all traveled very well and were quiet except for when we had to stop to feed them or give them water and they would all hiss.

Meet 6 year old Cyrus (male) and Chaos (female) – oh boy, wonder if her name reflects her feisty purrsonality? Our keepers can’t wait to find out!

When ODA approached Carole about taking the cats and mentioned that two of them were caracals, she caught her breath and her thoughts immediately turned to our beautiful Sassy caracal, who recently passed in March 2017, and her lifelong companion Rusty caracal, who passed last September. It almost seems like Sassy and Rusty are up in heaven orchestrating our rescue of this new pair of caracals and helping them find their way to Big Cat Rescue so that these beautiful caracals can live out their lives in peace here too.

And the young serval is 2-year-old Zucari. He’s practically still a kitten and will be the youngest serval at the sanctuary.

All 3 cats will need to be spayed/neutered once they arrive. And we won’t know until our vets examine them if they have any other health issues that will need to be addressed.

If you want to be an integral, important part of rescuing Cyrus, Chaos and Zucari, we would be very grateful to receive your donations toward the cost of their transport, surgeries and lifetime care at our sanctuary. It is your donations that allow us to continue to be able to immediately say YES when we are asked to save exotic cats in need! THANK YOU!

June 19, 2017 Chaos was Spayed

Aug 28, 2017 Chaos Sees Vet for Puncture to Left Front Foot

She's doing fine after having the pus drained and will be spending a week on concrete to keep the wound clean as it heals.

Chaos looking magnificent among the flowers of Funcation!

Don't you wonder if those ears have magical powers?!

June 26, 2022

A person watching the Verkada cams last night noted Chaos to be limping. Watch the video to find out what happened next!

June 27, 2022

Chaos sees Dr. Boorstein for limping. Watch the following video to see what they found out!

Chaos