The instinct to take in stray animals is a good one. The world would be a better place if everyone applied the kindheartedness and compassion to all who need our help.
That’s true, anyway, except when the stray animals we’re taking in are actually wild creatures who have no interest in or temperament toward domestication. In that case, you’re just gonna get bitten.
Three people in San Antonio learned that the hard and painful way, after taking in a pair of kittens that were not house cats—rather, the family who brought the animals into their home and tried to win them over with milk figured out, after being bitten on the hands, that the cute lil’ guys they’d accepted into their home were actually wild bobcats.
There’s not a ton of difference between kittens of housecats and of bobcats, at least until they start growing. Bobcats grow to more than twice the size of housecats, though—adults can weigh as much as 40 pounds—and eat a diet that includes house cat-sized cats (usually feral ones). The bites suffered by the kindhearted animal lovers who took the bobcats in, however briefly, were not serious.
They were notable enough, though, that the family called San Antonio Animal Control Services, which came and picked up the bobcats. They’re currently healthy and under quarantine at the facility for Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, awaiting release to a site where they can enjoy all of the squirrels/birds/rabbits/rodents they can get their claws on without inflicting either physical (by way of teeth and claws) or emotional (by way of learning that the cute kitties you’re trying to take care of don’t want to live with you) injury on humans.
