Family’s Siberian lynx still missing – Martin Co., FL

 

By Monique Mattiace
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
 
PALM CITY — Tina Love’s pet Siberian lynx has been missing for four days now. Every day the cat is gone, Love begins to believe more firmly “Simba” might have been stolen or might never come home.

 

Now, Love and her friends are asking for help.

 

Rick Meyers, one of Love’s friends, has been helping try to locate Simba. A trapper from Miami came to Palm City to help the Love family set three traps by Love’s home on Wood Creek Drive, Meyers said.

 

But, three traps won’t cut it, he said.

 

“The bottom line is we need more traps that we can borrow and a local trapper that can assists us,” he said. “We only have one shot of catching her. Once she enters a cage once she will never go back into one.”

 

Love last saw the 4 1/2-foot-long, 50-pound animal early Saturday morning after a storm. She removed Simba from her cage and put her in the screen-enclosed patio. When she awoke later that day she discovered a hole in the screen and Simba missing, Love said.

“I just don’t understand why she isn’t home,” Love said. “I’m starting to think she was walking down the street and someone could have taken her she is so friendly.”

 

Six years ago, Love bought Simba from a breeder in Wisconsin for $2,500 after she gave away her bobcat because it was too wild. Love decided to buy a lynx because they are the friendliest and easiest felines to train next to domesticated cats, she said.

 

Simba became apart of Love’s family of five when she was 6 weeks old, Love said. Love has a permit through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to keep Simba.

 

“I just love wild cats,” Love said.
 
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/oct/08/familys-siberian-lynx-still-03/

 

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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://bigcatrescue.org