Ninja

Male Lynx Hybrid

4/29/96 – 2004

Ninja was born here before we knew any better. We didn’t think a bobcat / lynx hybrid could reproduce, but his father did.  Ninja was never friendly toward people. He has a favorite spit to hiss at people from and the photographer’s love his beauty and fearlessness.

TRIBUTES FOR NINJA

Starting at BCR back in April 2000, I was overwhelmed. So much to learn about animals and so many cat names to remember as well. I started as a red shirt cleaning the little back cat section and sometimes later on cleaning the whole place 🙂 And there was always this beautiful bobcat/lynx hybrid sitting up on a branch. Day after day he would watch the volunteers go by from his throne. No tours came his way back then and no one noticed him all that much. But, for me, his look seemed to light up the whole back section. This cat was named “Ninja” and I thought he was the most beautiful cat I’d ever seen. I nicknamed him “super ninja” and would try to talk to him in bad karate movie accents as I cleaned the near-by enclosures. I liked him for always reminding me what he was. Even though he was in a cage, his spirit was wild. If you got too close, he would hiss and spit. If you were too slow with trying to get his poop out with a scrapper pole, he would whack at it and send the poop either flying at you or deeper into his enclosure. Ninja was also the first cat that I felt some kind of strange attachment to that had passed away. For me, there will never be a bobcat or lynx as beautiful as he. R.I.P.”super ninja”….Brian, Senior Volunteer Keeper

I will never forget the first bobcat I ever fell in love with.  His name was Ninja.  I was a “noobie” at Big Cat Rescue who didn’t know much more about big cats than a tiger has stripes and a lion doesn’t.  How surprised I was to meet this feisty little fellow.  He was always so photogenic perched high up on a log peering out over all of his domain.  It made me sad to realize just how small that domain was, he deserved so much more.  I was always assigned to his section of the sanctuary and, one day, I headed back there forgetting to check our information board – a big No No!  Once I got around to Ninja’s enclosure, I noticed his bowl was turned over and he wasn’t there.  Assuming he had been relocated, I saw Scott walking by and stopped him to find out where Ninja was.  It was his sad duty to break the news to me that Ninja had passed away.  I just started sobbing and sobbing.  Even though that has been 3 years ago, I still see him whenever I go to that enclosure.  It will always be Ninja’s and I will always be eternally grateful to how that little cat opened my eyes to the world of captivity…….Julie, Senior Volunteer Keeper