Farewell Rasta – April 2025
In 2009, WildCat Ridge was contacted about a three year old serval named Rasta, who was being kept as a pet in Iowa. Her owner reported that Rasta had escaped the previous December and spent five days outside in -40°F wind chill. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, servals have no adaptations for such extreme cold. Declawed and already suffering from a poorly healed broken back leg sustained at just three months old, Rasta’s chances of survival were slim. Miraculously, Rasta survived by taking shelter in a neighbor’s outbuilding though she suffered frost-bite on her ears and tail, losing significant tissue on both.
As so often happens when a wild animal is forced to live in an unnatural environment, Rasta after tasting freedom, yearned for more. Over the next six months she escaped multiple times, sometimes disappearing for more than a week. Her health began to decline, and her frustration at being confined manifested in destructive behaviors. Realizing that they could not offer her the freedom that she clearly craved, her owners reached out to WildCat Ridge Sanctuary in an effort to place her somewhere that she could live more freely and comfortably.
Rasta arrived underweight and stressed. But with dedicated care and the freedom to lean into her wild nature, Rasta slowly began to thrive. Over nearly 16 years at WCR, Rasta was given the space and proper care that allowed her to live as wild as she wanted. Her huge personality and irresistible charm endeared her to everyone she met. She shared her life and space with many feline friends over the years, most recently living with Uche until his passing in January 2023, and then with Taji.
As she aged, her previous injuries, especially her broken back leg, began to slow her down, but her zest for life never wavered. Sadly, this spring her little body could no longer keep up with her spirit. Her caregivers noticed her starting to limp on her front leg and radiographs revealed a cancerous lesion on her ulna and a fractured elbow. Knowing that her bone health was severely compromised and that bone cancer often spreads quickly to the lungs, we made the difficult but compassionate decision to give Rasta a peaceful release, her joyful spirit forever unbroken and unbent.
