This hyperlink got here from reader Stephanie, who added this:
This a tidbit however a cute story that has a more-or-less blissful ending (I don’t like zoos or the smuggling of untamed animals), however I believed you could be . One of the extra uncommon features of the story is that the cat-smuggling occasion took place in April 2022, however the story was launched in the previous couple of days. Note that the abbreviation for Denver International Airport is DIA.
An excerpt:
The Denver Zoo’s latest feline resident has been ready within the wings for greater than a yr — first smuggled by way of the Denver International Airport on a business flight, then held as proof in a federal investigation.
In April of 2022, a video went viral when a cat escaped its provider on a United flight to Denver, reportedly scratching and biting different passengers because it tried to flee the flight.
What passengers didn’t know is that this wasn’t a daily, home cat — it was a wild Geoffroy’s cat and the person transporting it had no thought what they’d gotten themselves into.
Geoffroy’s cats are small, wild cats native to southern and central areas of South America. Although they’ve an identical dimension and look to home cats, they’re a wild species and shouldn’t be thought of a pet, in keeping with a launch from the Denver Zoo.
“[The cat] was flying with a person who didn’t know what they had,” stated Rebecca McCloskey, carnivore curator on the Denver Zoo. “She wasn’t the owner, just someone who was transporting what she thought was a regular, domestic cat from point A to point B, from a breeder to a buyer.”
McCloskey stated the person wasn’t initially scheduled to finish their journey in Denver, however she lived in an condominium within the metropolis. After having a tough and painful flight attempting to wrangle the cat, she determined to go home for the night time and skipped the connecting flight.
That’s when she referred to as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, who reached out to each Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Denver Zoo for help.
Zoo staff, together with McCloskey, tried to assist determine the cat by way of photographs, counting on its shorter-than-normal tail, distinct shade patterns and white spots on the again of its ears to peg it as a wild Geoffroy’s cat, McCloskey stated.
Imagine the commotion when this wild cat obtained unfastened! And it was being transported by a “mule” (an unwitting smuggler. Here’s an Instagram image of the cat after it discovered a home:
The cat was fondly named Dia after the airport it was smuggled by way of and a play on the phrase diabolical from the viral video, McCloskey stated.
Together, McCloskey and different zoo and CPW staff labored with U.S. Fish and Wildlife workers to wrangle Dia from the condominium toilet right into a crate, the place she was taken to CPW’s wildlife rehabilitation middle pending an investigation into her earlier proprietor.
After a number of months of harboring the wild cat, CPW reached out to the Denver Zoo for help in housing Dia whereas the prolonged investigation dragged on, the zoo said in a social media put up Thursday.
“Dia came to stay with us in December of 2022, but at that point she was still evidence in both a federal and state investigation so we had to keep her under wraps,” McCloskey stated.
The zoo’s Animal Health and Care groups instantly jumped into motion to verify Dia had every part she wanted on the zoo, together with an acceptable food regimen, skilled care and a secure home.
It wasn’t till September 2023 when the case lastly resolved and the zoo was in a position to discuss their latest customer, now on observe for everlasting residency.
Now Dia is a full of life 7½-pound resident of the zoo, nevertheless it’s unhappy that it has to spend the remainder of its life behind bars. Still, it hasn’t misplaced its spunk:
“She just has the most confidence and the most personality,” McCloskey stated, laughing. “At one point during the beginning of her stay with us, she had a room in the tiger house and just came charging up toward the mesh in front of the tiger and began posturing. The tiger backed down and fled to the other side of the room.”
In 4 days it’s World Geoffrey’s Cat Day:
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From BobCat TV: A caracal (Caracal caracal) will get launched to the resident Maine Coon cats in a Russian home.
I’ve two questions: why is it all the time the Russians who personal these unique cats? And why are the “pet” cats all the time Maine Coons?
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From Bored Panda, right here’s a sequence of fifty photographs of cats being cats. I’ll present just a few:
Freddie Mercury was after all an enormous cat fan:
What a deal with!
There are fifty of them on the website, and so they’re all good. Go take a look!
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Lagniappe from a Facebook web page by way of Mark. It’s “Norman Catwell” painted by Louise Herrernan (get it on Amazon). How all of us see ourselves:
h/t: Jay, Stephanie, Ginger Ok.
