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Summer 2022 Annual Update & Appeal Letter with $33,000 Matching Funds
Our Annual Update last year began by saying we hoped we were in the waning days of COVID. That obviously did not prove to be the case. During the last year a number of facilities that were open to the public have reported big cats catching COVID and some dying. We have chosen to take a conservative approach and remained closed except for small private tours for donors. While the loss of the tour revenue has been a financial challenge and required some severe expense cuts, thanks to the wonderful, steady support from donors like you we have continued to operate with no compromises at all in the care the cats receive.
Our rescue work this past year has continued to be dominated by an unusual number of orphaned or injured native Florida bobcats, each with its own unique story, but now with a new twist. There is almost nothing known about how Florida bobcats behave in the wild, like how large a territory they roam. That is going to change because working with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologists we have begun the first ever program of collaring the bobcats we release. The first cats to be collared were Pia and Venkman who were mentioned in last year’s letter.
The second pair to be collared were Cahira, who had arrived when we wrote to you last year, and Byrdie, who came to us in late June 2021. In a rural area where much of the forest had been cleared for a 3500-home development, Byrdie was found at 12 weeks old dehydrated, starving, and weighing about half what she should have weighed at that age. Cahira and Byrdie were released with their collars in late April, becoming the 47th and 48th bobcats we have successfully rehabilitated and returned to the wild.
Nakoa, a 13-week-old male bobcat, was spotted crouching under a plant at a nursery in Eustis, FL when a worker there, thinking Nakoa was a skinny domestic cat, tried to pet him. When Nakoa ran under a shed, he was observed limping. He had a large open wound on the top of his right front wrist and two broken toes. He was successfully released onto a 6000+ acre parcel in November.
When these orphaned bobcats come to us, their fate is uncertain for a number of reasons. Sometimes they come in terrible condition, have limited immune systems from lack of mother’s milk, and despite our best efforts do not survive. Some survive but have permanent neurological or physical impairment that would prevent them from surviving in the wild. This particularly occurs with those hit by cars - unfortunately a frequent event.
Isolde was a female bobcat who came to us from South Florida in December emaciated, dehydrated, and covered in mange. In our rehab hospital she cozied up on a fleece bed and enjoyed her first meal in who knows how long. We were very hopeful as we observed her during the night. Sadly, our hopes were suddenly and unexpectedly dashed when she passed away in her sleep early the next morning.
In November we rescued Malaya, an 8-month-old female bobcat, whose condition at first made it seem unlikely she would be a candidate for release because she walked in a very tight circle incessantly. This suggested some kind of neurological issue. The hope was that this might be the kind of brain swelling, sometimes caused by trauma injury, that could be treated. Thankfully, after a visit to a neurologist and thousands of dollars in tests and treatments, the amount of circling she did gradually diminished, finally stopped, and she was successfully released in April after five months with us.
Three of the bobcats we rescued in the last year, Summer, Val, and Winter have been determined not to be suitable for release and will become permanent residents. Summer came to us last July at just 2.5 weeks of age. She faced a number of serious health obstacles during her first few months, each of which had us worried we would lose her, but the feisty little girl overcame each one. However, she is about half the size of a normal bobcat her age both in weight and height and, critically, her narrow pelvis causes her to get blocked up when we try giving her whole prey as food, which means she would not survive in the wild.
Val is a full-grown bobcat who was shot by a farmer who caught her eating his chickens. Fortunately, the bullet went through her shoulder blade without puncturing her lungs, probably because she was in a crouched position. However, she had other serious issues, including a deformed forearm, two broken canine teeth, and a damaged eye that has no vision. We suspect that in the past she was hit by a car, the leg was broken, the bones became displaced, and the muscle healed in a ridged contracted position. This leg could not be repaired by surgery and had to be amputated to avoid pain and to improve her balance.
Winter came to us exhibiting symptoms of FLM. The FWC has been trying to study this condition in hopes of finding a treatment. All but one of the previously found bobcats with the disease were already dead and the one live bobcat only lived for a week. It is unclear how long a cat can live with this disease when provided with food and water. Coordinating with FWC, we are hopeful Winter might unlock the key to combatting this fatal disorder
Our next candidate for release with a collar is Autumn. She was found still of nursing age by a hunter on the east coast of Florida with broken bones and deformities from nutritional deficiencies. We are waiting for her to grow to the size that can handle the collar and then look forward to watching her leap back off into the wild.
Just 12 hours after we released Malaya, we picked up another eight-month-old we named Orpheus. He had collapsed, starving. After an intense treatment plan for multiple serious medical issues, he seems to have made a full recovery but will need continued monitoring.
Our work never ends--as the final draft of this update was being written, we were called to rescue an adorable six-week-old bobcat Makani. You can read his story here!
This Annual Update & Appeal letter only goes to our donors. This is a very helpful time to make your donation if you can. This year, thanks to two of our donors, the first $33,000 in donations will be matched dollar for dollar, so your gift will go twice as far. Thank you so much for your ongoing support of our cats!
Makani says "Thank you"!
You will receive an emailed receipt to keep for your records.
If you fell in love with any of these rehabs (like all of us have), you can now sponsor them during rehab!
You can do that here in our online gift shop:
We would LOVE it if you could let your friends and loved ones know about your support of our work by sharing this via social media using the links below!