2015-07-05 Carole Baskin‘s Diary

Carole Baskins Diary

I posted this to our volunteers: It is with a heavy heart that I must report that Raindance Bobcat has left us to join her mate who died in 1994. Thank you ALL for giving her the best 22 years any captive bobcat could have.

When she stopped eating last week we did diagnostics and found some bad teeth and very bad kidneys. We hoped that by removing the bad teeth, as we did for Little Feather Bobcat who had the same issues, that we might be able to turn it around for Raindance. We had to use appetite stimulants to get her to eat after the dental, but yesterday she couldn't keep the food down and today she refused any food or even the 'cicles she loves so much. Cats are so stoic, it's always hard to tell, but she appeared to be in pain and feeling nauseous from her failing kidneys. You could see it in her eyes and her countenance that she was done with this life.

I went to her web page to gather information for her tribute which will be posted July 12 (please don't post on social sites until then) and noticed that neither there, nor on this site, was any mention of how she got her name. I thought you might like to know.

Here is my diary entry from Feb. 14, 1994:

*Valentine’s Day and I’m being loved to death by a Bobcat. Raindance has a coat like water spotted silk and a personality to match. Only her mate, Bob Martin, was sweeter. He died a few weeks ago from Lippadosis and Raindance still holds on by a hope and a prayer. I loved Bob Martin and mourn his passing.

Bob Martin came by his name as an inside joke. We bought him from a furrier when he was only a few days old. He was being raised by a house cat and was unrelated to all the other kittens we bought from Tom Kavan. Danny Lewis wanted a pair of kittens to raise, so I selected him and a female (Raindance) from a litter of five, hoping she would be predisposed to large litters. Neither were exceptional looking kittens, but Bob was fat as a butterball.

Five months later Danny was separated from his wife Janice and brought the cats back to us. We couldn’t believe these were the same two cats. They were maturing into so much better cats then we could ever imagine. They didn’t have names so we named the female Raindance and the male Bob Martin.*

The problem was that they were SO obese that when they started getting a decent diet here, they lost weight too quickly. The fat clogged their arteries so badly that Bob Martin died and Raindance just barely survived.

Raindance got her name because she loved to splash around in the rain. She would run and pounce into any muddy puddle she could. By the time she was done, you couldn't even tell who she was, other than her bright, happy eyes gleaming behind a mud soaked coat. The other cats would run from her when she was in muddy-up-and-pounce mode. She quickly became a huge favorite at the sanctuary and it may have been largely due to the fact that she had to be groomed so much, given her proclivity for dancing in the rain. We stopped handling cats circa 2003 because we felt it sent a very bad message and would make people want them as pets. They are only lovable like this for the first year or two, and then they become who they were meant to be; top level predators.

Despite being hands off with her for the past dozen years, Raindance was still probably our biggest volunteer recruiter. I can't tell you how many times someone told me the reason they were volunteering here is that they came on a tour and Raindance spoke to them. She's never been a talker, like Reise Cougar, but she spoke with her heart. Yesterday I was in awe of a black and gold butterfly, that was bigger than my hand, and seemed to be everywhere on property. Perhaps her kin, calling her home. We will all miss this exceptional bobcat, but her spirit will forever be in our hearts and in the ether of our mission.

Later Note 11/13/2021: Bob Martin was an inside joke because when I met Don he said his name was Bob Martin and that he and his wife were separated and he just worked for the tyrant, Don Lewis. It was a long time before I discovered the truth, but by then I loved him too much to leave him.