Hello Kitty, what kitty are you?

By Kay James, Dells Events

wde-news@capitalnewspapers.com

Wisconsin Dells mail carrier Alan Borud likes cats, but he admits the one he found in his yard this week scared him at first.

Borud pulled into his driveway in Adams County at the end of a workday and saw what he at first thought was a stray cat. Then the cat stood up and started walking toward his car. This was no stray cat. Borud yelled at it, and it kept walking toward him.

"Normally, I'm not afraid of animals," he said, but he decided with the size of this cat and the way it was walking toward the car he would pull the car around so his door was closer to the house. He thought the animal was wild and had rabies since it was not acting like a wild animal.

Safely in the house, Borud watched as the cat came up on the porch, stood on its hind legs — at which point it was about chest high to Borud — and looked in the window. Borud estimated the cat weighed between 40 and 50 pounds.

Borud's own pet cat took one look at the visitor and went flying into the bedroom to hide under the bed.

"I slowly decided it was friendly, he said. Borud, at one point, donned a leather glove and reached out the door toward the cat. It allowed him to pet it and started purring, although Borud said the purring sounded more like a rumble. The animal appeared well fed and seemed to want to come into the house.

Borud called the Adams County Sheriff's Office, who in turn called Department of Natural Resources Warden Mike Green. Green then called Borud.

Green told Borud he does not normally come out for cats, but after Borud described this cat, he decided to come and see it for himself.

When Green arrived, he stayed in his truck for a time watching the cat. At first Green told Borud the cat was some type of lynx, usually found in the wild in Canada. It had to have been a pet, Green said, since it was so tame, but he also said the animal was intimidating. In the wild, lynx are solitary animals that kill and eat deer, small mammals and birds.

Green told the Events he did not know what the animal was. "I can't say for sure. There are several possibilities." It has some characteristics of a lynx such as pronounced ear tufts, but the feet, legs and face have differences from a lynx.

Adams County Animal Control was called to come and pick up the cat. The animal control officer arrived and pulled a cat kennel out of his vehicle. Borud said he told the man they did not think the cat would fit in it. The officer insisted it could hold a big cat until he saw the lynx cat. Then he went back to his vehicle for a dog kennel.

Since the lynx/cat was so friendly, instead of trying to catch it, they sat the kennel on the ground. Borud said the animal was not the least bit scared and seemed used to a kennel. It stuck its head in and walked into the kennel.