There are animal rescues that go beyond what humans could do.
We heard many stories of people rescuing animals and attending to their emergencies. Some needed to perform first aid and CPR on an animal like they would a human being. However, animals do have special needs that only other animals can help.
That is precisely the miracle story of how a cat saved a baby wild bobcat’s life.
A family in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada found this young bobcat in their barn. It looked weak and cold. They called the Atlantic Wildlife Institute for help, and they were told to bring it to the nearest animal hospital.
They drove the bobcat to Douglas Animal Hospital, more than an hour’s drive.
The family wanted to make sure that the bobcat would be given the proper care and a chance to stay alive. The rescuers’ diagnosis was hypoglycemia and hypothermia. The bobcat had seizures, and they knew they had to act fast.
They wore protective booties on the bobcat and placed her on a heat disc.
This seemed to do the trick with her hypothermia, but they still had to address its other critical condition. Hypoglycemia is when one’s glucose (blood sugar) level is low. This happens to animals, too, as it did with this young bobcat.
The only way to treat this was through blood transfusion, which proved difficult at that point.
Douglas Animals Hospital reached out to different animal shelters to find a possible match for the young bobcat, who they eventually named Fiona. Time was of the essence since her organs started to fail her. She was cold, dehydrated, starved, and anemic, which took a toll on her health.
Luckily, they found a potential match in Smuckers.
The Fredericton SPCA sent a cat named Smuckers as Fiona’s possible blood donor. He underwent a full screening to make sure he ticked all the boxes of their perfect blood donor.
According to the animal hospital’s post, these were what they were looking for in a donor:
“Donor cats have a physical exam and a full blood panel to ensure they are healthy. They are then cross-matched to ensure they are of the same blood type as the blood recipient. They also must be less than 8 years old, more than 4.5kg, and must be neutered.”
Smuckers ticked every box and was a perfect match for Fiona!
They started to move forward with their rescue operation. They extracted blood from Smuckers, around two tablespoons of it. They let him rest and assured everyone he had his snack right after.
Then, they transfused the blood to Fiona.
And while the transfusion was successful, they continued to monitor her condition and ensured there were no complications whatsoever. After months of monitoring, the animal hospital said Fiona continued to thrive and they hoped that they could soon release her back to her natural habitat.
Smuckers’ story went viral, and it caught the attention of Leana Luckier McGuire, who explained her late brother was Smuckers’ previous owner. She said her brother would be so proud of his cat.
“Smuckers was my brother’s cat. My brother passed away in late December, and we weren’t able to take this sweet boy back to our home in Texas. I knew someone would fall in love with Smuckers. He’s an absolute sweetheart. And now a hero! Tears of joy on this one. Brother Mike would be so proud,” Leana wrote on Facebook.
Smuckers’ story has a sweet ending, too.
All that heroic act caught people’s attention, including his (now) forever home. They saw Smuckers and what he did, and after being matched, our hero cat found the purr-fect family for him.
Check out a video about Smuckers and the bobcat below!
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