Bobcat kitten rescued from brushfire is on the mend

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A baby bobcat kitten rescued from a Florida brushfire is on the mend and getting TLC at a wildlife center.

“He was pretty scrawny so I’m not sure he’d had a good meal for a few days,” Barb Walling, the woman who found the singed kitten, told KOAA News.

The kitten’s paw pads were burned in the fire. His doctors are applying ointment to the burns and nursing him back to health.

The baby bobcat is getting bottle feedings. He spends time with another young bobcat to help him identify with his own kind, learn to be a bobcat and have an easier when he is eventually returned to the wild.

“With any luck he’ll be a productive member of wildlife society one day,” says Dr. Heather Barron, veterinarian and hospital director at C.R.O.W. Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, where the kitten is in care.

“What we’ll do is raise it here and actually we’re kind of lucky because there’s another bobcat kitten that’s roughly the same age,”

C.R.O.W. wrote at YouTube: “The baby bobcat from the brush fire off Daniels Parkway near Southwest Florida International Airport on Friday (5/30/15), was brought to CROW from the Florida Fish and Wildlife for rehabilitation. He arrived dehydrated and thin with slightly burned paws. He was responsive, feisty and had a healthy appetite and was immediately given fluids to help with his dehydration and food. He continues to improve.”

C.R.O.W. wrote at Facebook on June 3 with an update, saying: “Baby bobcat (15-1646) from the Fort Myers brush fire is gaining weight and eating from his dish (soaked kitten chow w/milk). Soft mouse pieces are his favorite! He and his current roommate baby bobcat (15-1536) are interacting in a positive manner.”

Note: Special thanks to our friend Belinda Barnett from Animals Are Not Garbage for suggesting we share this story.
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Watch the sweet video taken at the time of the kitten’s intake, uploaded June 3: