Man Rescues 'Stray' Kitten — Then Realizes She's Not What She Seems
She kept making a noise that was “not like a normal ‘meow’” ...
Jared Allen Yost works for a landscaping company in Minnesota — but he’s first and foremost an animal lover. So, when he heard what sounded like a creature in distress while on a job recently, he didn’t hesitate to take a closer look.
“I went over to help whatever was making those noises,” Yost told The Dodo. "Then I found a kitten."
With no mother in sight, and the weather about to turn sour, Yost decided to rescue the seemingly stray kitten. He brought her home, fed her and introduced her to his family.
What Yost didn’t realize, of course, was this was no house cat.
Yost made arrangements to have the kitten get a checkup with a vet. In the meantime, however, he began to notice that there was something a little off about this cat.
She kept making a loud sound — “Not like a normal ‘meow,’” Yost said.
Acting on a hunch, Yost decided to search the internet for images of baby bobcats. And sure enough, his new kitten had many things in common with those wild cats: “White triangles on back of ears, giant paws, markings on nose, etc.,” Yost said.
She also had an unusually short tail.
Yost then sent photos of his kitten to the Minnesota Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Staffers there agreed:
The "stray kitten" was actually a bobcat.
After learning the kitten's true identity, Yost brought her to the rehab center to get the help she needed.
It's unclear how the baby bobcat lost her mother, but under expert care, she is being raised to retain her wild instincts in hopes that she'll one day be set free. Yost has been receiving updates on her progress, and is optimistic she'll have a normal life.
"She's doing great!" Yost said. "It sounds like she will be released in early fall."
Though Yost's time with the little bobcat was brief, he's happy to have had the chance to help her — and thankful for those folks dedicated to helping wildlife every day.
"It was an awesome experience and I would do it over and over again," he said. "I'm glad we have awesome vet doctors and rehabilitation centers for animals in the wild to get care so they can be be released again."