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Animal Lover Rescues 'Stray Kitten,' Discovers it's a Bobcat

What if you started feeding a stray kitten and it turned out to be a wild animal!

We included the photo below. Do you think it looks like a kitten? I absolutely think it does and I wouldn't have hesitated to pick that 'kitten' up from the side of the road.

So what exactly happened? A woman in Chattanooga rescued a 'stray kitten' and it ended up being a bobcat! She pulled over on the side of the road, picked it up and put it in the car with her. The bobcat was in harm's way and it seemed like a no brainer.

"It climbed all over me," said the woman when she interviewed with WDEF News. 

Later after consulting with neighbors, she realized what she rescued was actually a bobcat.

WDEF News interviewed the woman and an expert from a wildlife rescue who has great tips on how to tell the two apart. The most important tip is as they get older they will get aggressive. Hopefully, you don't have to find out that out the hard way!

For Fox Sake, Wildlife Rescue tells WDEF News that bobcats typically have spots that you won't really find on a domestic cat. 

  • A male bobcat can be twice the size as a normal domestic cat
  • It's best to leave them alone but honestly in this case, how could she!
  • The kitten will have black tufts on their ears

This sweet kitten needed someone to look out for it.

The bobcat will be released in a protective area close to where she was found.

This baby bobcat is adorable and as an animal lover I wouldn't have done anything differently.

What would you do if this happened? Leave a comment below with your story. 

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