Lincoln woman rescues malnourished baby bobcat; Nebraska Wildlife Rehab now restoring her back to health

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A Lincoln woman opened her door to a wild surprise earlier this month.

It was an unusual encounter for Jackie Hamaker, who watched a baby bobcat walk right up to her front porch.

Because of the frigid temperatures, Hamaker opened up her garage to the cat, luring her in with droppings of food.

Hamaker said she immediately noticed how malnourished the animal looked, but also how well it took to people, which was not normal.

“We put it down on a sleeping bag, and I got a couple of space heaters, put some food and water out, and it started eating,” she said. “I pet it on the head, and it started purring. I thought, ‘What a beautiful, exotic cat. Somebody’s lost their cat.'”

Hamaker took to social media, posting the bobcat on the Lincoln Lost Dogs and Cats page.

There, she received a ton of comments from others who were just as shocked.

“I was just surprised that it was a bobcat,” Hamaker said. “When I opened the door and stepped over her, she didn’t even move.”

She decided to call Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, which made the trip from Omaha to Lincoln. The team quickly noticed how much help the bobcat needed.

“By this time of year, she should probably be about 20 pounds,” said Laura Stastny, the Executive Director of Nebraska Wildlife Rehab. “She wouldn’t be an independent cat if she were raised in the wild; she would still be with her mother. But she is less than ten pounds in weight, and she is quite thin, almost emaciated.”

The team took the bobcat’s blood and performed multiple tests.

A little while later, the bobcat began having a seizure, which was cause for more concern.

Stastny said it’ll be a long road to recovery, but without Hamaker taking her in, it could have been very different.

“She’s been on medication to keep her stable,” she said. “She’s been doing well and gaining weight and eating. Now it’s a little bit of a wait-and-see, to see how she recovers. Unfortunately, she is really tame. She won’t be a candidate to be re-released into the wild.”