Losing a family member is never easy and all the animals at WildCat Ridge Sanctuary are absolutely family, even though they might not feel the same way. On January 7th, we said goodbye to Uche.
Uche was born in 2003 at the San Diego Zoo and hand raised. He then went to a private facility that did educational programs. When their funding ended they reached out to WCR to see if we could provide a lifetime home for Uche and two other wildcats, Bobby, a bobcat, and Dot, an F1 Asian Leopard Cat hybrid. They arrived at the Sanctuary in August 2008. Uche became fast friends with Chirpy & Cha-Cha two servals that lived together. They were a perfect trio, always together, and loving sanctuary life. As the years went by Uche outlived his best friends but was always happy to have a new companion to share his habitat with.
Uche was a calm, stoic boy who liked his enrichment and food very much. Over the past year, we started to see that his age was catching up with him. We keep a close eye on him and had regular vet visits to determine just what was needed but this past month was different. He was slowing down and wasn’t very interested in eating. He was moved into the wellness center when he started showing signs of an upper respiratory infection, and he was monitored daily by Natasha, our Animal Care Director, and Tiffany, the Operations Manager. He had good days that were encouraging but the bad days started happening more and more. Despite trying all we could Uche finally let us know it was time. Dr. Penny Jacobs came out late Friday night and with Tiffany and Natasha by his side released him to move on to his next journey. Providing care for a captive-born wildcat is an honor we never take for granted, it’s sad and bittersweet letting them go, but knowing after 20 years he is finally free is something we keep close to our hearts. Safe travels beautiful boy we are grateful to have had you in our lives and we miss you every day.
