The Wonder of Cats: Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington
Cats are amazing creatures: Intelligent, beautiful, strong and graceful. They have been celebrated in poetry and fiction, depicted in paintings and sculptures, and immortalized in myths and legends. The ancient Egyptians even had a cat goddess called Bastet who was the patron of Lower Egypt. The beauty and power of cats have inspired a sense of awe since ancient times.
The Wild Felid Advocacy Center of Washington is a wonderful place to meet some of our planet’s fascinating wild cats. It is dedicated to conservation through education, animal welfare, and by providing a sanctuary for captive born or wild born wild cats in need. My family and I had the opportunity to visit this beautiful sanctuary recently, and it was certainly a highlight of our stay in Washington State. The sanctuary is currently home to 59 cats, including bobcats, lynx, cougars, servals, tigers, hybrid cats, and more.
Meet Buddy. Buddy is a fifteen-year-old male bobcat. Doesn’t he look cuddly? Bobcats are named for their short, bobbed tails. They mainly hunt rabbits and hares, as well as birds, mice and squirrels. They can pounce up to ten feet when hunting.
This is Digger. He’s another male bobcat who is larger than Buddy, and ten years old.
This lovely lady is a female serval called Meeka. Servals have the tallest ears among all cats. They also have the longest legs in proportion to their bodies.
Kiki is a thirteen-year-old male Eurasian Lynx. Note the characteristic tufts of black hair on the tips of his ears. Did you know that the Eurasian lynx is capable of taking down deer? In the wild, deer and other hoofed animals are their preferred prey.
Meet Suri and Tabbi. Both are gorgeous four-year-old female tigers, each weighing over 300 pounds. Tigers eat about eight to ten pounds of food daily. Talk about eating you out of house and home! That’s not cheap, but they are certainly worth it. Look how they are cuddling here.
Tigers love playing in the water, as you can see by this photo of Suri.
This is Harley. Harley is a two-year-old male cougar, and he’s just as cute and playful as can be. Cougars are capable of taking down something ten times their size. They are also very acrobatic. Cougars are the largest purring cats. While they are born with lots of spots, their coats acquire a uniform tawny color as they mature.
Crackal is the resident caracal. He is three years old. Like the lynx, caracals also have tufted ears, and are sometimes confused with lynx because of this. The two can be differentiated by their coats: the lynx is spotted while the caracal is not. Caracals are sometimes called the “desert lynx” although they are not related. They move fast, are great hunters, and their ears rotate independently of each other. Another fascinating fact: caracals can jump thirteen feet straight up into the air from a sitting position! Wow.
Turbo is a gorgeous six-year old male leopard. Leopards are native to Africa and are known as the most intelligent of the big cats, capable of strategizing and planning when hunting or avoiding capture. They are also very strong, and carry their prey up into trees so that it will not be taken away from them.
Meet Snickers, an eleven-year-old female Gordon’s Wildcat. Gordon’s wildcats look so much like domestic cats in size and build, but they’re not. These are Arabian wildcats: powerful and quite ferocious compared to your average housecat. No, they don’t make good pets, but are wild, and must be treated with the same respect and dignity as all wild cats. They prey mostly on rodents, reptiles, small birds and occasional insects as well.
All the cats at this sanctuary are precious, and it was a real privilege to meet some of them. The Wild Felid Advocacy Center’s passion is evident in all the work and time they dedicate to these gorgeous creatures. Because they do not receive any federal or state funding, they depend on donations to keep up their work and carry out their mission. Monetary donations are also tax deductible. For more information visit wildfelids.org
AUTHOR: Jocelyn Murray
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@catfacts
The cat's front paw has 5 toes, but the back paws have 4. Some cats are born with as many as 7 front toes and extra back toes (polydactl).
I saw a polydactl cat in my neighborhood. The writer Ernest Hemingway was known to have polydactl cats too.
Unlike humans, cats do not need to blink their eyes on a regular basis to keep their eyes lubricated.
I wish I did not either, especially because I have dry eyes!
The Amur leopard is one of the most endangered animals in the world.
They are beautiful creatures. I hope they don't go extinct.
The claws on the cat’s back paws aren’t as sharp as the claws on the front paws because the claws in the back don’t retract and, consequently, become worn.
Having fewer toes also makes it easier when clipping their claws.
Contrary to popular belief, the cat is a social animal. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech , and seems to enjoy human companionship.
This is very true and I know this firsthand. Cats do not like to be left alone long. They will howl a lot. They get lonely.
The earliest ancestor of the modern cat lived about 30 million years ago. Scientists called it the Proailurus, which means “first cat” in Greek. The group of animals that pet cats belong to emerged around 12 million years ago.
amazing catfacts
A cat’s jaw can’t move sideways, so a cat can’t chew large chunks of food.
cats make wonderful pets
Since cats are so good at hiding illness, even a single instance of a symptom should be taken very seriously.
This is true.
Purring does not always indicate that a cat is happy and healthy - some cats will purr loudly when they are terrified or in pain.
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STOP@catfacts has a wealth of information about cats of all kinds.
Lions are the only cats that live in groups, called prides. Every female within the pride is usually related.
That is a very cool fact.
The richest cat is Blackie who was left £15 million by his owner, Ben Rea.
Cats' hearing stops at 65 khz (kilohertz); humans' hearing stops at 20 khz.
that's amazing
A cat sees about 6 times better than a human at night, and needs 1/6 the amount of of light that a human does - it has a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
I have a pet cat. She is 21 years old. Even at her age, with cataracts and partially deaf, she still sees and hears very well
While it is commonly thought that the ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, the oldest known pet cat was recently found in a 9,500-year-old grave on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This grave predates early Egyptian art depicting cats by 4,000 years or more.
There is something very special about cats. No wonder their allure dates back so far
Cats dislike citrus scent.
They like plants in the mint family
Cats have super powers compare to humans
A cat usually has about 12 whiskers on each side of its face.
Those whiskers help cats especially when moving in the dark.
A cat usually has about 12 whiskers on each side of its face.
Thank you for all your fascinating cat facts @CatFacts
Approximately 1/3 of cat owners think their pets are able to read their minds.
That's a curious fact