Smithsonian reports a female serval (Leptailurus serval; a wild cat native to Africa) found wandering around in Missouri. Click the screenshot to read:
Some excerpts:
Over the last six months, a farming family in rural Missouri began to notice bones and feathers between their stacks of hay bales. Occasionally, they’d catch a glimpse of the possible culprit: an animal one family member described as a “crazy-looking cat.”
Eventually, they decided to put an end to the mystery and set a live trap. Within 12 hours, they’d caught the four-legged perpetrator—an out-of-place wild cat known as a serval, which would’ve been much more at home in the grasslands of Africa than in the Ozark Mountains near Ava, Missouri.
Where the feline came from was anyone’s guess, but the family fed it venison, gave it some water and took it to a local veterinarian, who determined the wild animal was a female. The veterinarian did not find a microchip that could’ve helped identify the creature’s owner.
After inspection by a vet, the cat was taken to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas for thorough vet care and then re-homing:
After transferring the serval to a crate and driving her to the refuge, the center’s team helped her get comfortable in a much larger recovery enclosure. They set her up with boneless chicken, toys and a mulch bed that she “seemed to really enjoy,” per the statement.
ADIn an initial veterinary exam, the refuge’s team found the serval was suffering from several problems. One of her toes had a puncture wound that had become infected, and she was anemic from a bad flea infestation. They also amputated a small piece of her tail that they suspect fell victim to frostbite.
“All of this has now been treated, and she’s being kept under observation in quarantine at our onsite vet hospital,” Cheryl King, the refuge’s marketing director, tells UPI’s Ben Hooper in an email.
A video of the cat’s inspection, mentioned above:
Staff at the refuge don’t know how the serval got to the Ozarks or what she experienced over the last six months, but they have a few hunches. She likely escaped from a backyard breeder or, possibly, the breeder released her into the wild for unknown reasons. Fortunately, she still had her claws, and the refuge’s staff found evidence that she’d been doing a little hunting to keep herself fed, likely catching birds, rats and mice.
“Who knows how long she was out there,” says Smith to FOX Weather’s Chris Oberholtz. “If we hadn’t rescued her, I’m afraid that she wouldn’t have lived more than a couple more weeks, because the infection in her paw was pretty significant.”
Poor kitty! But she’s going to be all right.
A rescue video can be seen on Facebook. I have no updates, although Turpentine Creek’s site shows a rescue serval named CeCe (the facility is especially for rescuing big cats).
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“Pilling the cat” is an onerous task at best, Even hiding the pill in a treat often fails, as cats are great at spitting out the medicinal center. Here’s a video compilation of cats successfully getting pills (only 35 seconds long); the YouTube credits say just this: “Successfully giving cats medicine. Credit: @mo_harutan”
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I discovered Aymie and her talking cat Penny as “short clips” on Facebook, and became enamored with the pair. Aymie is always changing the color of her hair, and Penny ends every video with a cat raspberry. Here’s nearly a full hour of Penny & Aymie shorts compiled over eight months.
The YouTube caption is this:
8 months ago we made a 53 minute video of all of our short skits and now it is time for a new almost hour long video! In the last few months there have been many hair color changes, sickness in the household, thieves breaking in and much more! Enjoy while getting something done or just sit back and giggle at our sillies!
It’s a very popular YouTube channel, with 1.2 million subscribers!
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Lagniappe: I love this meme, though it’s not exactly appropriate for a family-oriented website:
h/t: Al, Athayde
Pilling a cat is not difficult if you have the right equipment.
Years ago my then-vet gave me an instrument which is a miniature version of an equine balling gun. You pull back the plunger, put the pill in the little rubber tabs on the end, secure the cat in a towel, stick the gun in its mouth at the back of the tongue, and push the plunger.
Easy.
Interesting story about the serval—it’s lucky she was found by some caring people.