2012-09-13 Carole Diary

Carole Baskins Diary

Tribute to Skip the Bobcat

On 9/13/12 Skip the bobcat was discovered having a violent and prolonged seizure and foaming at the mouth. Dr. Wynn was contacted and the staff were instructed to give him medication that would hopefully ease the seizure. Unfortunately his seizure was too severe and he died shortly after. Gale gave him chest compressions and Jamie gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation to try and revive him to no avail.

We searched his enclosure for snakes, poisonous frogs, and any other clues that may have caused this reaction. We found one dead toad with a hole in his abdomen and are working to identify it. We will be performing a necropsy to see if we can discover the cause of his death. Blood samples have been taken to Dr. Wynn. Jamie is driving him to the University of Florida for a necropsy because of the concern for rabies, since he was foaming at the mouth and she was giving him CPR. He's been vaccinated, but we have to take every precaution.

Skip was much loved by a huge community including our volunteers. I am trying to contact each of the SkipAHolics by private message and ask that they do not post to facebook or social sites, including the SkipAHolics group for at least 2 days to give our volunteers time to find out from checking their Big Cat email.

Since we usually ask that our people wait a week before broadcasting such news in order that their fellow volunteers do not find out in ways that diminish their importance as onsite caregivers, Jamie emailed everyone at BigCatRescue.org with this notification in the hopes that they check their Big Cat email daily. Please do not post anything about Skip, or even hint of his passing until 9am EST Sunday Sept. 16. 2012 so that our volunteers do not find out the hard way by checking into Facebook.

Thank you for caring so much about Skip and all of our animals. I must say that Skip looked the picture of health today and that was largely due to your loving thoughts and care. If it turns out he died hunting toads, at least he was being who he was designed to be; a magnificent predator.

To see videos of Skip go to http://bigcatrescue.org/2011/skip-cam-episodes

Skip's Rescue: I was right in the middle of sending an email to LaWanna about some promotions she was dreaming up for the ChatBigCats.com site when Honey Wayton, our gift shop manager called and relayed an urgent message.

A woman had called to say they had found a bobcat alongside the highway and had it loose in their SUV and wanted to know what to do next because it was getting pretty mad.

Obviously this was their first bobcat rescue, because no one makes that mistake twice. I called the woman who said her name was Nici and she said that the bobcat laying alongside the road had caught her eye. Her husband, Skip had chased him down with a blanket, scooped him up and put him in the back of the car. He was dragging his back end, so the chase wasn’t much of a challenge, but picking up a VERY mad bobcat made him a fury of claws and teeth.

Nici said they were two blocks from their home and that they could just leave him in the car for us to deal with, if we wanted. As I frantically brought up a map to see that she was 2 and a half hours away, I didn’t think that was a great idea. I asked if she had a pet carrier that they could just plop the blanketed cat into before he fully regained his senses.

She didn’t but her friend Lorie did. Turns out that all three of them had visited Big Cat Rescue in the past and were eager to do anything they could to help save this skinny, crushed little bobcat. My instructions had been to completely envelope the cat in thick blanketing and take the top off the carrier, if necessary, to accommodate the entire bundle, and then bolt the top back on. I don’t know why that didn’t work for them, but I called Nici back a few minutes later, after starting Jamie on her way to Mt. Plymouth, and Nici said, “I hope you guys will name this bobcat Skip, after my husband because he is so brave!”

Slashing teeth and claws be danged, Skip had managed to get a grip on the bobcat’s scruff and lifted him into the carrier. Even though Lorie had brought over a German Shepherd sized crate the bobcat managed to go spread eagle over the entire door making it a real effort to push him into the pile of blankets in the carrier. Kind of like baptizing a cat in a cereal bowl.

They covered him up and waited with him while I called every vet I could find between there and Tampa. My concern was that the cat would go into shock before we could get him to a vet here, so I just needed someone to do a preliminary check and stabilize him. By the time I had called a dozen vets and a couple of rehabbers two hours had passed and Jamie was nearly there.

Our old van is a 1998 and has seen better days. It was shuddering so badly that Jamie Veronica had taken it into a station to check the tires but they were OK and the shudder happened even when sitting still. I’m no mechanic, but sounded like a rod knocking to me and I was sweating whether or not the van would even make it to the Mt. Dora area, NW of Orlando.

Once I gave up on finding a vet near the bobcat, or even on the way home, who would give him the courtesy of even the most basic care, which I assured them I would pay in advance if necessary, I began to try and sort out what to do when he arrived in Tampa.

If Jamie didn’t break down, she and the bobcat should be back in town around 6 pm. Our primary vet, Dr. Wynn had a previous engagement hosting a dozen people at 6pm. I asked if I should contact Florida Veterinary Specialist or our secondary vet, Dr. Dave Murphy. Dr. Wynn said she would call her clinic and see if Dr. Dave Danielson might be willing to look at the bobcat. He had worked with native bobcats before that we brought in, and was willing to help.

Another frantic call from Honey and Howard and I were on our way to the sanctuary to give tours. We have a Free Teachers promotion going on and instead of having 2 or 3 groups of twenty showing up at 3pm we had 9 such tour groups yesterday and it turns out 12 groups today including a wedding. It was the biggest single day the sanctuary has ever had. It was probably good timing because otherwise I might have made Jamie crazy by calling every five minutes and asking, “Where are you now?”

During one such call Jamie said she would need me to bring the squeeze cage to the vet’s office. How we were going to get the bobcat out of the carrier and into the squeeze cage was yet to be determined, but getting it there was the first step. As soon as my tour ended I trotted across the parking lot to the on site West – Boensch Cat Hospital. I chatted with Jack, who was recovering in the hospital from a nasty accident he had with the front gate, while I loaded the squeeze cage into my truck. Jack is doing fine and is living proof that cats do have nine lives.

I ordered pizzas for pick up because I knew Jamie hadn’t eaten since this morning and didn’t know if the vet and his staff would be skipping dinner to fit this bobcat, now named Skip, into their already hectic evening schedule. Jamie already had Skip inside and he was well on his way to a long, deep sleep by the time I arrived. She said they had tipped the crate up on end and hand injected him through the grated door. Within only a couple of minutes he was sleeping…or so we thought.

On the x-ray table he began blinking and trying to sit up, so he got a little more ketamine and went back to sleep. The first x-ray showed the crushed pelvis and Dr. Danielson asked if we wanted to go any further as this was going to be a lot of major surgery with limited hope of recovery. I told him we had spent more than $7500 on the last bobcat who needed plates, so we were willing to spend the money as long as the cat didn’t have any cat-killer diseases that would make him unfit for release. The blood tests were done and he had a clean bill of health so the only other obstacle, which was determined later during a sonogram was that he has internal bleeding and his spleen may be beyond recovery. Only a couple days of quiet rest and careful observation will let us know if he is going to live long enough to have the work done.

The vet tech Heather pulled ticks off Skip while Jamie checked his ears for mites, his fur for fleas and Dr. Danielson powdered his raw, purple rump, bruised badly from the impact. Judging by his pearly white fangs we guessed his age to be around two years old and while finely muscled, he only weighed a mere 17 lbs.

After consulting Dr. Wynn by phone, Dr. Danielson decided to take a lot more x-rays and did all of the other work, such as flea treatment and tests, so that in a couple of days, if the spleen is still operational, Skip could go to FVS for the precision plating and pinning necessary to give him full mobility.

We waited to make sure he would wake up OK from the anesthesia, which he did rather quickly, and then covered him up to rest quietly in the dark over night. Being a wild cat, close proximity to humans is very agitating. His whole life has been based upon the knowledge that man is to be avoided at all costs.

If Skip makes it through the night we may set up cameras to monitor him tomorrow so that he isn’t being exposed to constant stress. I am very thankful for all the love that has been focused his way and if love can mend a broken bobcat, then Skip will surely be ready to run free again soon.

Skip's Facebook Fans: Skip the Bobcat became a Facebook Phenomenon over the New Year’s Week of 2010-2011 You can join the conversation at http://www.facebook.com/bigcatrescue Big Cat Rescue’s posts are in bold, followed by Skip’s 193 pages of well wishes from his Facebook fans. His chat window on UStream was even more voluminous, but is deleted each time the system resets, so we were unable to capture it.

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.