Cheryl Tuller's Story

WildCat Ridge Sanctuary – How it all started (as told by Cheryl Tuller)

Atticus Tiger at Cheryl Tuller's WildCat Ridge Sanctuary

Cheryl Tuller started Wildcat Ridge Sanctuary in 2001 with her husband, Michael. Since those early days, the sanctuary has grown and now is home to more than 80 animals, including 50 wildcats and hybrid cats, many domestic feral cats, four roosters, two turkeys, two donkeys, and a sheep, and two cows. Each of the animals in Cheryl’s care has a unique and special story. Read about Finnigan, Cairo, or Calvin and Hobbes.

WildCat Ridge Sanctuary is committed to providing every one of them with a safe and natural lifetime home.

During her more than 20 years of running the sanctuary, Cheryl Tuller has taken in hundreds of wildcats, loving and caring for them all, no matter how wild they were or how hopeless their situation seemed. As rewarding as it is, there are also many heartbreaks. The sanctuary residents are here for life, which, sadly, also means having to say goodbye.

Cheryl tells the story of how it all started:

In 1996, an ad in the Oregonian for “Hybrid Bobcat Kitten” caught my eye, as a cat lover. My sensible husband, who also loves cats, said absolutely NOT, but within the week BoBo was in our suburban family home.

I fell in love with BoBo, but as he got older he became more of a challenge. I was determined to be the person who could make this little bobcat a pet. It took BoBo a full two years to convince me that, nope, it wasn’t going to happen. Bless his heart, he repeatedly tried to let me know, but I was blind to the fact that he was and always would be a wild animal.

Because of the lessons BoBo taught me, our lives took a path I would never have imagined.
Now, we provide lifetime homes for other animals in need. It’s tough and often heartbreaking, and it is a 24-hour, 365-day-a-year commitment. When I occasionally wonder what our lives would have been like if we’d stayed suburbanites, I think of how BoBo changed that course—there’s no looking back.

In April 2018, at the age of 22, BoBo moved on to his next journey and left behind memories of those early days when he taught us that wild animals should never be pets. He is the founding father of WildCat Ridge Sanctuary, and we are grateful for his patience and understanding. Each day we honor his legacy by working hard to care for wildcats that come to us for safety, love, care, and freedom from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

We are also deeply grateful to everyone who has supported our work throughout the years. We truly can’t do this without you and we look forward to your continued partnership to ensure that animals in need will always have a place for peaceful and happy lives at WildCat Ridge Sanctuary.

Cheryl Tuller

Bobo (1996 – 2018)