Winter Bobcat Rescue Narrative

by Carole Baskin

May The Force be with you rang through my head.  We had been called to New Tampa about a bobcat acting strangely about 40 minutes away.  By the time we got there the bobcat was hunkered down in a tangle of jasmine, ferns and blackberry thorns that made about a 10 foot thick ring around a majestic palm tree.  Jamie and Victor drove from their home and got there first.  I brought Karma Hurworth and Michael Heap with me and the rescue van full of bobcat gear.

We circled the palm on our hands and knees and used the long end of our nets to lift up the thick tangle to try and catch a peek underneath.  Michael saw movement and we heard the bobcat bark a warning at us, so we knew she was in there somewhere.  There was just no way to flush her out though because she was perfectly safe as long as she was within about the 25-30 foot wide brush pile.  It was too thick to crawl under to her, so I found the barest spot on top, climbed over the thicker outer wall of vines and sunk down next to the tree.  My plan was to scare her out into their nets.

Her plan was to hold her ground against this one stupid interloper rather than face four people with nets and the three neighbors who were holding up a barrier we brought to keep her from fleeing into the adjacent swamp.  Why is it always cold when I have to chase bobcats through murky, muddy swamps?  Stay focused Carole.  She’s about three feet from my face.

I wriggle my way back up to almost standing, where I can hold a hand up as high as I can to be seen above the jasmine and point to where she’s tucked in so everyone can gather around that part of the ring.  Once I hear them move into place, I drop back down into the darkness.  I can only make out the silhouette of her ears and can almost feel the spit in my face with each threatening hiss.  I ask Michael to throw me a blanket I saw laying on a lawn chair so that if she does launch at me I have some way to secure her.

I can barely move.  I’m on my knees, leaning impossibly forward toward her, and only suspended by the vines.  The brush gets more dense and I can’t get any closer to her.  Jamie asks if I can touch her with something, but there is nothing down here to use.  Someone drops a snare pole down the hole I came in through and with a tremendous amount of struggle I am able to get it turned around and facing her with the looped end.  There is just no room to maneuver in here!  Touching her with the open end just made her madder and more determined to fight me and the pole.   Running from us didn’t seem to be an option in her mind.  God, I love bobcats!

It was probably only seconds, but it felt like a long time before I got the nerve up to slip the noose over her ears and start drawing it tighter.  I couldn’t see her, other than her ears, so I didn’t know if I had the slip knot around her throat, or maybe (hopefully) a front leg as she was swinging at me.  In 44 years of catching bobcats I’ve never use a snare pole.  I hate them.  I am so fearful of the cat strangling or breaking his neck in the wild thrashing that is sure to ensue.  This was the only option in this situation and now I had to close the loop tight enough to hold a cat I could barely see without killing her.  May The Force be with you rang in my head.

I pulled until it felt right to stop but there was no tension on the line that gave me a clue.  It was only The Force.  Jamie said to push the pole out toward them because they couldn’t get a net, or even gloved hands into the thick vines until the bobcat could be pushed out, clear of them.  The bobcat rolled onto her back, screaming at me and I took that as a good sign that she was getting enough oxygen, so I started pushing the pole out toward Jamie.

I couldn’t see what was happening, but when it sounded like they had her within the grasp of their nets and gloves, I wriggled backwards to find my iPhone which had been scraped from my pocket a while back.  Shaking, I opened the camera app, clawed my way back to the surface and held the phone over my head and pointed in the direction of the commotion to try and capture the transfer of the bobcat into the waiting carrier.  Once she was in, Victor released the snare (something I wasn’t sure any of us even knew how to do) and they closed the door on the very, very angry, scared bobcat.  I thanked God, the angels, The Force and every other variation for having guided my hands and those of our Big Cat Rescuers.  I knew it wasn’t my skill and thus not my glory.

I think this is the same bobcat we have been trying to catch since June 2020.  Above was the first video we got of a bobcat who appeared to either be suffering from a broken pelvis, or some neurological disease.  *FLM had first been noted in Florida panthers in 2019 but I don’t think any bobcat or FL panther had been caught alive with it, or lived more than a few hours after capture.  We didn’t catch her in 2020 but in Feb. 2021 we were called to the same location and did trap her.  She was strong enough in the front end to bust the door off our coyote trap and got away.  This bobcat was just 2.2 miles away and people in both communities had noted that everyone knew her, as she wasn’t terribly shy and was a good neighbor.  ie: not a pet killer.

I’ve been watching her on the Bobcat Hospital remote cameras.  She came in at a mere 6 lbs, 4 oz which is less than half of the 15-20 lbs she should weigh given her frame.  She’s eating like there’s no tomorrow and sleeps for 12+ hours at a time.  Watching her walk, fall over, collapse and then try again, makes me wonder how she lived this long.  People must have been feeding her.  I weep at her suffering.  I’m overjoyed that she’s here and hopefully we can figure out what is causing FLM and how to cure it.

*Feline leukomyelopathy (FLM), is a disorder which affects non-domestic cats. The disorder causes microscopic changes in the brain and spine, causing varying degrees of rear leg weakness and difficulty walking. The disorder was identified in panthers and bobcats in Florida in 2019.

We’ve been coordinating with the our vet, Dr. Boorstein and the FWC to do a spinal tap and other diagnostics on her as soon as she is stabilized.

Winter Bobcat sees the vet 01 27 2022

Its a GIRL! It was determined Winter is a female bobcat during her exam today. She has gained a pound since her rescue and weighs in at 7.8 pounds. She had blood work drawn, a spinal tap done by the FWC vet who attended, X-rays done and an overall exam.

So far her blood work is insignificant, we are still waiting on results.

FIV and FelV negative.

The Xray machine malfunctioned and was not producing full images but from what we saw nothing was abnormal.

She was flea treated and vaccinated for rabies and with FVRCP.

She will continue antibiotics and steroids.

Spinal tap was sent out with the FWC.

We will keep you updated as we know more.