Little Dove

Little Dove Bobcat

Female Bobcat

Born 5/12/1993 – Died 9/24/2017

Rescued 5/27/1993

9/24/17  Little Dove was our oldest bobcat when she died last night, in her sleep, in her favorite den.  She was the last of the original 56 bobcats and lynx who had been rescued from a fur farm in 1993.  She died on the first day of the Cat Summit at the Jackson Hole Film Festival where 650 non profits and media producers have convened to work together to save exotic cats.  I guess she just had to be here in person to witness it.

Those who watch our nightly walkabouts in Facebook knew Little Dove as the bobcat who loved her coolaroo hammock bed and who insisted on breakfast and dinner in bed every day.  If you rode with us every couple of hours during the live broadcasts we did, patrolling the sanctuary during Hurricane Irma, you know that she was the one cat we worried about most, but she slept blissfully in her den through all of it.  Her keepers loved her immensely and she will be greatly missed.

Little Dove came with the original group of 56 who were rescued from a fur farm by Big Cat Rescue. She is a “Blue” Bobcat and turns silver in the winter. Although she was raised along side Little Feather and Raindance, two of our friendliest Bobcats, she has never been very trusting of humans and remains quite shy.

She now has a 2400 square foot Cat-A-Tat all to herself. When she was younger one of the cats she lived with mistakenly bit her eye while playing. It has healed completely and her vision is fine, however her eye is two colors, divided directly down the center, one side is golden and the other side is dark brown.

Most of our bobcats were rescues from fur farms.  The deal Our Co-Founder made with the three fur farms we discovered in the U.S. was that he would pay top dollar for every cat and kitten they had as long as the fur farmer would agree to never buy and breed cats again for slaughter.  It came at a time that the public outcry was against the fur industry.  Many of these animals were purchased at auctions where the uncaring owners were dumping the cats with no concern about their welfare.  There is much controversy over whether we did the right thing by paying the ransom for these cats.  We still accept many unwanted cats each year, but do not pay for them and typically require that their owner surrender their license, in an attempt to keep people from just trading in their cats each year for a newer, cuter model.  We have to turn away more than 100 cats each year due to a lack of space and funds and the lack of regulation of the exotic pet trade. Read more about our Evolution of Thought HERE