Josie was the second wildcat to come to WildCat Ridge back in 1998. She came from a facility in Georgia that couldn’t keep her. Josie was just six months old when she arrived and she became BoBo’s lifelong companion. She was twenty-one years old when she had a seizure in May of 2019. We rushed her to the clinic but found a huge tumor on her heart and she had thrown a blood clot  As heartbreaking as it was, we didn’t wake her up from the anesthesia.

Even though we knew the time would come sooner than later, losing her was still unexpected. Caring for her and being part of her life for so many years it’s still hard to process that we’ll never see her putting silly things on her head, or hear her purr or watch her cuddling with BoBo. She taught us about bobcats and made us want to do all we could for the ones that came after her. Josie was so dear to us and she leaves a huge hole in our hearts. Safe travels sweet girl, we miss you every day.

The loving thoughts that were shared about losing BoBo touched our hearts and will make the healing process easier. Thank you all for your kind words 

I apologize for the very long post. Where to start . . . two days ago I had to make the call that I’m still reeling from, even though I knew it was coming. Our boy BoBo has moved on to his next journey. So how do I write about the cat that has been a part of my life for 22 years? The many memories run through my head and take me back all the way to the beginning. Meeting this tiny little kitten that I fell completely and madly in love with, took me from a 41-year-old suburbanite to someone who’s life completely changed as well as my unsuspecting family’s. An ad in the Oregonian (1996) for ‘Hybrid Bobcat Kitten’ was too hard to pass up as a cat lover.

My sensible but cat-loving husband said absolutely NOT and within the week BoBo was in our home  BoBo became the love of my life, even as he got older and more of a challenge. I was determined that I was the one person who could make this little bobcat a pet. It took BoBo a full two years to finally convince me that nope, that wasn’t happening. Bless his heart, he tried over and over to let me know, but I was blind to the fact that he was, of course, and always would be a wild animal. Because of this tiny little kitten and the lessons he taught me my life had taken a path I would never have imagined.

I try to fool myself into thinking that despite the mistake of buying a wildcat, I’m making amends by providing lifetime homes for others that need a place to live out their lives. And we are, but when people ask, ‘if you could do it all over again, would you?’ My answer is always absolutely not. It’s a tough and heartbreaking way to live, it takes over and becomes a 24 hour, 365 day a year commitment. It would have been so much easier to have just stayed a suburbanite with a 9 to 5 job and a normal life. But BoBo changed that course and he became the founding father of what has become WildCat Ridge Sanctuary. Of course, he didn’t understand that he was just glad to finally live as a wildcat the way he always should have. And now he’s gone . . .

I am happy that he lived a long, healthy life, yet I feel a little cheated I didn’t have more time with him. But that’s my selfish nature talking. It was time to let him go and I had to listen to him just like I’ve been listening to him for 22 years. Safe travels BoBo, I miss you and will always cherish our memories. You truly made a difference in my life and so many others 

These are the posts that I dread writing and each time I have to it is heartbreaking. This year we have had so many losses that it’s been tough to process. Losing the wildcats we’ve loved and cared for over the years isn’t easy even when we know that it’s inevitable. On September 21st we lost our old man Robert. It’s taken me this long to write about it because I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

As our oldest wildcat Robert came to WCR in August 2008 from an education facility that was shutting down. Uche, a serval and Dot, an Asian Leopard cat came as well. Robert was fourteen years old at that time and had severe hair loss and itching. His allergies were extensive and it took lots of vet visits and medication to finally get it under control. He was also four paw declawed and one of the worst cases we have ever seen.

Despite all of that, he was a tough old man and we all fell in love with him.
Robert and Dot lived together until we lost Dot in 2012 to cancer and Robert seemed a little lost. We decided to see if Shambles (bobcat) might be a good companion and it was love at first sight for Shamie, but Robert liked playing hard to get.

Eventually, Robert warmed up to her and we often found them cuddling in the den box. It was so sweet to see as Robert got older Shamie was never very far away, keeping a close, loving eye on her old man. Robert loved to play with feather toys and any enrichment that included scents. He had a select few keepers that he loved and would ‘woo woo’ to them when they came with food and toys. He was very content and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to care for him.

In the past years, we started to see more and more that he was slowing down. Some days he was hungry, some days he wasn’t. Arthritis from his declawing was much worse so he was on pain management to try to keep him comfortable.

But every time we thought that we needed to make that final decision Robert did something that let us know he wasn’t ready. He would play with his toys, talk to his keepers, come up to rub on the wire and spend time grooming Shamie. We kept a very close eye and on that morning he let us know he was tired and that his time had arrived.

Robert was surrounded by the people who loved him the most when we said goodbye and helped him move on to his next journey. It’s such a sad feeling knowing he’s gone and we will never hear that wonderful, ‘woo woo’ call again. But he was happy and content for many years and it’s the most we can hope to provide for these precious souls. Safe travels old man, we miss you more than we can say ????