Picture it: you’re minding your own business one day, taking a walk with a companion, when you stumble across a beautiful, wide-eyed little kitten. With no mama or sibling cats in sight, you’re faced with a conundrum. Do you leave the kitten all alone to fend for himself in the hope that his family shows back up? Or do you take the kitten home? A lot of us — humans are suckers for sad, furry little faces, after all — would grab the kitten and run to the nearest pet store.
What’s an animal lover to do though, when the kitten is actually a mountain lion cub?
This was the scenario some good Samaritans in El Dorado County found themselves in last week, when they spotted an adorable 4-week-old mountain lion alone on a quiet road. While more idiotic individuals (me — I’m talking about me) might have attempted to snatch the cat up themselves, these nature-loving humans had the sense to call in the big-hearted pros of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The state agency spent the weekend surveilling the cub and monitoring wildlife cameras to see if they could find his family. By Monday, it was clear that the cub was all on his lonesome. CDFW promptly swept in, rescued the poor little bugger, got him fed and watered, and delivered him safely to the big cat lovers of Oakland Zoo.
This is what landed before the zoo’s veterinary hospital team on Monday:
I mean…
