All In a Day's Work
One of our volunteers rushed into my office one evening at dusk and said “I
just heard on the radio that a bobcat was involved in an accident at Gunn
Highway and Cosme Road!” As I ran
to load nets and a carrier into the truck, she asked if I’d need help, and I
told her I’d call if the cat had survived.
We had rescued three such bobcats in the past few years.
All had lived and we had been able to return them back to the wild.
The intersection was only a few miles away and I was there in minutes.
Arriving on the scene I screeched to a halt amid overturned vehicles, wreckers and police cars. The police cars were parked with the driver’s windows facing each other and were parked so close together that, net in hand, I leaped up onto the hood of one cruiser and thrust my head in the gap between the two windows. I figured the cops were afraid of the injured bobcat and were thus huddled to figure out what to do. Out of breath from the exertion I said excitedly, “I’m from Big Cat Rescue and I’m here to rescue the bobcat!”. One of the officers said, “You’re kidding, right?”. Obviously annoyed, I snapped back, “We’re a big cat rescue center and I’m here to save the bobcat, if it’s not too late!”. The officer replied “I’m sorry ma’am, but I’m afraid you’re too late…”
My heart sank. If only I
could save them all. Every cat lost
to human encroachment is a personal loss for me.
Lost in the grief of the moment, I almost didn’t get it when the
officer continued “…I’m afraid that we already strapped the “bobcat” to the back of a flat bed wrecker. It
had a few scratches and scrapes, but we think it will live to lay sod again.” By
now the other officer was roaring with laughter.
I looked around the scene again to see that the overturned vehicles were
lawn equipment and a trailer. The
bobcat involved in the accident had been a piece of machinery.
This was the best rescue call we’ve ever had to answer.
Carole Lewis 4/00