Divinity

Female Bobcat
5/30/95 – 1/9/18
Arrived at Big Cat Rescue 7/6/95

Divinity was sold from a fur farmer to an individual, along with an unrelated mate, Takoma, when she was only a few days old. She was bottle raised for three weeks before the new owner had a heart attack and could no longer care for the kitten. The woman had seen our video and knew that Big Cat Rescue could love and care for her little ones and we have.

Divinity’s color is almost silver and her disposition is pure gold. She was so tiny and frail when she arrived that there were many nights we thought would be her last, but she wouldn’t give up. She was always a nervous little cat and couldn’t sit still for more than two minutes at a time.

You may notice that her feet are very floppy looking.  That is from a botched declaw job as a kitten.  Cats walk on their toes and declawing hacks off the last digit of their toes so that they are forced to walk on their heels.  As they age, that becomes harder and harder for them to do.

Divinity Bobcat When She Was a Kitten

Most of our bobcats were rescues from fur farms. The deal we made with the fur farms 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.

Some of our cats were purchased at auctions where the uncaring owners were dumping the cats with no concern about their welfare. We still accept many unwanted cats each year, but do not pay for them and now 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.

The only way to end the abuse caused by the trade in wild cats is to pass a federal ban on the private possession of exotic cats.

Read more about our Evolution of Thought HERE

One Last Attempt to Save Divinity

8/26/17  Divinity is in the West Boensch Cat Hospital.

Yesterday we didn’t turn on the cameras in the Windsong Memorial Hospital because we were so certain that Divinity’s kidney values, at the age of 22, would mean that it was the end of the road for her.  6 months ago she had some bad teeth removed after she had stopped eating.  She went back to eating for about 3 months and then declined again.  At that time her kidney values were horrible.  Great for a 22 year old cat, but horrible for long term survival.  She was put on a new kidney supplement and some more repair work was done in her mouth.

When teeth are extracted the vet sews a flap of gum over the hole to help it heal.  Divinity’s flaps did not heal, so the process was repeated.  She’s done well for another 3 months, but then started to go off her food again.  At first she only wanted to eat at night.  Then she began eating less and less.  The last three days she barely ate at all, so that’s why we thought it was the end of the line for her.

As soon as a cat is sedated and on gas we draw blood to see what we are dealing with.  It takes our machine a long time to spit out the results.  During the time that the blood was spinning down, we did X-rays because given the weird joint problems we had seen before, and the fact that her mouth not only had not healed, but the jaw was cracked, we suspected bone cancer.  No tumors, or irregularities could be seen in the X-rays.  Divinity’s upper palate was broken in a way that you only usually see in a bobcat who has been hit by a car.  While it’s possible that she could have fallen off a platform, or could have run headlong into a wall of her cage, or den; neither seem likely.  She’s too slow, on her arthritic little legs, to move so quickly and despite being old, she has never been seen falling.  Bone cancer seemed certain, or maybe bone deterioration from infection, since the flaps had not healed, yet again.

Divinity was moved to the dental table, but everyone just stood around her, waiting on the blood machine to tell us if there was any point in proceeding.

Much to our amazement, Divinity’s blood values had actually improved.  The supplement was working!  Dr. Justin decided to give it one more shot by cleaning out the holes, where her rotten teeth had been, and sewing flaps over them again.  He stitched the broken palate and jaw areas, with the hopes that Divinity’s improving organ function might be able to enable healing this time.  It’s still a long shot, so we will be watching her closely over the next few days to see if she starts to improve.  If she does start eating we may have to sedate in 10 days to see if the healing is finally taking hold in her mouth.  We don’t want her to suffer but we weren’t ready to give up on her yet, either.

She is full of pain medication right now, so she is drooling and wobbly.