Catera

CATERA Male Bobcat

DOB 7/24/97

His parents, Shiloh and Indian Summer had been a bonded pair for seven years before coming to live on Easy Street.  They had never reproduced, so we left them together and of course a littler of three resulted in just a few short months.  The mother, on the third day, began killing the kittens and by the time the Founder could get to her, two were dead and she was biting the last one on the chest and abdomen.  She snatched the bleeding kitten away from her and took it to medicate and bottle raise.   It wasn't long before the she discovered why the mother had brutally attacked her offspring.  Catera (named for theCaddy that zigs) was obviously brain damaged and from the condition of all three kittens, it was apparent that they had not been nursing although the dam had stayed with them faithfully.  It took hours to feed Catera and every time, it was as if it was the first time for him.  It took him a year to get on to solid foods and again, every meal was like the first he ever had.  If his surrogate mother walks out of the room and walks back in ten minutes later, he has forgotten who she was and only through the vocalizations they have shared over and over and over does he again recognize her.  Every day is new and exciting to Catera and he is quite possibly the happiest cat living on Easy Street. Catera runs incessantly in circles and attacks everyone he can't remember, which is everyone he knows. Catera has shown much improvement over the years and is doing very well with his operant conditioning sessions. He has learned 3 behaviors in only a few months. Catera has his own Cat-a-tat that provides plenty of running room. 

Most of our bobcats were rescued from fur farms where they were being raised to slaughter for their fur.  Some were being sold at auction where taxidermists would buy them and club them to death in the parking lot, but a few were born here in the early days when we were ignorant of the truth and were being told by the breeders and dealers that these cats should be bred for "conservation." Once we learned that there are NO captive breeding programs that actually contribute to conservation in the wild we began neutering and spaying our cats in the mid 1990's.  Knowing what we do about the intelligence and magnificence of these creatures we do not believe that exotic cats should be bred for lives in cages. Read more about our Evolution of Thought HERE