Phoenix and Captiva

(Warning to chicken lovers, there is a photo on the page of the bobcat eating a chick. These chicks arrive frozen and are the byproduct of the egg industry. All male chicks are usually disposed of at birth. We buy them to feed our cats because whole prey is the most wholesome for the cats.)

We have cameras on the outdoor enclosures, but not enough band width to open it up for public access. Here is a screen capture:

This is just one section of their 5 section rehab run.

Phoenix and Captiva ~ Rescued June 2015

There are two more mouths to feed at Big Cat Rescue! Phoenix and Captiva are two little Florida bobcat kittens who both lost their moms recently in very different, but equally awful ways.

Big Cat Rescue is a licensed bobcat rehabber here in Florida We plan to raise these guys at our sanctuary with as little human interaction as possible so they retain their wildness. When they are full grown, we will teach the kittens to hunt and release them back to the wild in a rural area of Florida.

If you’d like to donate to the care and upbringing of these amazing kittens, click HERE.

Phoenix

Phoenix managed to live through a forest fire last week in Lee County, Florida. Officials hoped to reunite the kitten with his mother, by leaving him near where he was found after an initial assessment that he seemed ok. But three days later, the kitten was dehydrated and still calling frantically for his mother, so he was sent on June 1 to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW). Staff at CROW evaluated Phoenix and helped him recover well before delivering both kittens to Big Cat Rescue on June 25, 2015 for the next phase of their rehab for release.

We think there could be no more appropriate name than Phoenix, the mythological symbol who raises from the ashes to be reborn.

Here is a compilation of news stories about Phoenix:

June 1, 2015: The baby bobcat rescued from a massive brush fire in Lee County last week just underwent a physical at CROW – Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, Inc. Staff says recovery is going well for the kitten. Click here to read more about the rescue: http://bit.ly/1GiR4xE

News updates http://www.nbc-2.com/story/29221676/bobcat-kitten-improves-despite-burns#.VXCyd1xVhBc

http://www.wptv.com/news/state/florida-bobcat-kitten-on-the-mend-after-rescue

Captiva

The larger kitten doesn’t have a name, and I am just using Captiva here as a holding space.

Captiva’s story is every bit as heart rending, but didn’t make the news. She was the one Big Cat Rescue agreed to take first. Gareth Johnson, the CROW Hospital Manager, worked with us a few years ago when we rehabbed and released bobcat Copter. Gareth called Big Cat Rescue on June 1 to report that some people had trapped a bobcat kitten and then left it in the trap without food or water for a couple days before deciding they should feed her something. Of course, they had no idea what to feed a 4-week-old nursing bobcat kitten, so what they fed her made her sick. Lucky for Captiva, they finally made a good decision and dropped her off at CROW. The kitten was stabilized, despite the fact that she arrived in such bad shape no one thought that was possible.

CROW has state of the art medical facilities, but is not set up for bobcat rehab. Raising and rehabilitation a bobcat requires a lot of space and infrastructure. Gareth called and asked if we would be able to take the little one. I told him that I’d be happy to drive the 5-hour round trip to pick up the little darling. Gareth wanted to do a SNAP test first and said he’d call me to come get her as soon as that was done.

Meanwhile Phoenix, the bobcat kitten who survived the forest fire, was directed by the Florida Wildlife Commission to be sent to CROW and he arrived that same evening, June 1.

More photos of Phoenix and Captiva