Tennessee woman rescues 'kitten' that turns out to be a bobcat

UPI ^ | 26 Sept 2019 | Ben Hooper

[Red Badger]

Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A Tennessee woman who rescued a kitten she spotted running across a road brought the feline into her car and took it home before discovering the creature actually was a baby bobcat.

Jill Hicks of Chattanooga said she was driving recently when she spotted the kitten running across the busy road and decided to rescue it.

"So I pulled over and surprisingly it didn't run from me," Hicks said in a Facebook post. "I put it in the car with me and it climbed all over me like a kitten would do, got in floorboard under my feet, and after stopping a couple of times to get it nestled into my lap, I finally got home with it."

Hicks named the animal Arwen. She said it wasn't until a neighbor came over to look at the kitten that its identity was revealed.

"I was going to go home from dinner, give her a bath, put her in the bed with me and when we decided she was a bobcat, I was like I probably better not do all of that," Hicks told WDEF-TV.

Hicks took Arwen to the For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue, where rehabilitators confirmed the young animal was a bobcat.

Rehabilitator Juniper Russo said people can look for signs to determine whether a kitten actually is a young bobcat.

"Bobcat kittens always have spots in some form or another, whereas actual spotted markings are really rare in domestic cats and a bobcat kitten will sometimes, but not always, have black tufts on the ears, which are also possible in domestic cats, but pretty rare," Russo said.

Russo said Arwen will be cared for until the animal is old enough to be released back into the wild, likely around March.

Hicks said she has no regrets about her actions.

"Even though I thought she was a kitten, had I known she was a bobcat, in that small and in that high-trafficked area, I still would have done the same thing," she said.

[Red Badger]

Video at link.

She fits the description.................

[InsidiousMongo]

Why does this remind me of that old Elizabeth Shue movie where her friend, Penelope Ann Miller picks up a giant sewer rat and pretends it’s a kitten since she lost her coke-bottle thick glasses? LOL

[Bob434]

just saw a report where a woman picked up an injured full grown bobcat and put it in her back seat, next to her child- fortunately it was so injured it couldn’t attack the child

[RedStateRocker]

Beautiful little kitty.

[Red Badger]

Reminds me of the commercial where a nearsighted woman lets in the cat and its a raccoon....................

[mewzilla]

Come snuggles with Mama?

[HangnJudge]

https://pethelpful.com/exotic-pets/pet-bobcat

... bobcats are considered to be the “easiest” exotic feline to start with if the care of high-maintenance animals is your preference. Hand-raised animals are just simply not the same animals as those that roam in the wild, so pet bobcats are not “wild.”

...If a potential owner is willing to understand the non-domesticated behavior of an exotic feline species, Bobcats are one of the more rewarding exotic mammals to own and keep content in captivity.

[Conserv]

I love that scene.

Kid, that’s a jumbo sized sewer rat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQTRYr3Eicg

[Conserv]

I love that scene.

Kid, that’s a jumbo sized sewer rat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQTRYr3Eicg

[freefdny]

She saw the fear. Now she has to make friends with the fear like Ricky Bobby.

[real saxophonist]

Colorado Springs woman picks up injured bobcat, puts it in her car next to child

[wardaddy]

I’ve got a pet bobcat....he doesn’t move much and lives on my piano

He and the quiet gobbler

[HangnJudge]

...Bobcats are known for taking large prey relative to their size. Despite reaching a height around that of a medium-sized dog, they often hunt animals like deer with impressive skill. With such a capability, this may call for labeling bobcats as “potentially dangerous” to humans, however, outside of animals infected with rabies, there are few, if any, incidents of bobcat attacks, as well as no recorded deaths from them, wild or captive.

[BlueLancer]

Pretty kitty ...

[wardaddy]

A forty pound tom bobcat will kill and eat a baby or toddler

And it’s happened with exotics

Nuts to think bobcats if raised in a home will be like a housecat

I think people at that site are dirt people naive about wild animals

[Buckeye McFrog]

Tennessee woman rescues 'kitten' that turns out to be a bobcat

Elly May Clampett?

[bigbob]

Hicks? Pretty hot.

Kitty looks nothing like what I’d expect a bobcat kitty to look like.

[Gamecock]

My sister, who lives in Germany, found a kitten and brought it home. She noticed it was a bit more spirited than other cats.

Time came to take it to the vet and he asked where she found the little guy, because what she had was a European Wildcat.

My sister kept him and raise him but as he grew older he became increasingly anxious and wanted to go outside every night. She started leaving the basement window open and he just left every night and returned at sunrise. Every so often he would bring some kill home. Sis said he was the sweetest thing. Got along with the dogs just fine.

This went on for about a year and one day he just never returned.

[Bob434]

surprised it was that tamed-

[Innovative]

There is nothing wrong with a young, fairly tame bobcat.

This one looks pretty tame.