Injured LA County mountain lion cub finds a friend in Northern California
By Hunter Sowards
While receiving state-of-the-art care in Northern California, the injured mountain lion cub found on a Castaic street has made a new friend, a fellow orphaned cub from the Central Coast.
The cub, named Cas Cat by staff, has been recovering at Doris Duncan’s Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.
“So, when I heard the story break about this cat, and saw the news media of it sitting in the center divider with traffic going by it, I saw, more than maybe most people, the terror in its eyes,” said Duncan, the executive director of the rescue.
Duncan’s team was tapped to take in and care for the cub when efforts to reunite Cas Cat with her mom failed.
“Then, when I found out we were getting the cat, I was just ‘OK team, it’s happening!” Duncan said. “The kitty’s coming our way! Let’s get ready!”
Animal care director Katie Woolery meticulously prepped the Cas Cat’s new home and transformed it into a dense forested space for the cub.
“It’s really amazing now, in the few years that we’ve been doing these big predators, the rate that we can mobilize people and get these enclosures ready,” Woolery said.
After arriving at her new home, Cas Cat became friends with another cub found in San Luis Obispo. Staff spent weeks trying to acclimate the two before introducing them to each other.
“One was really aloof,” Duncan said. “Let’s just pretend one was in junior high and the other was in high school, and the junior high one wanted to go play with the really cool one that went to high school. And, she’s like really aloof.”
The staff said they don’t usually rehabilitate cubs in the same enclosure unless they are siblings, but the two became friends, grooming each other over time.
“And to see that one of them grooming, it was basically the stuck-up girl was grooming the little needy, groveling girl, and I was like ‘Yes, they’ve made it!” Duncan said.
The pair still have to learn how to fend for themselves before they can be successfully released back into the wild.
“Just kind of leaving them to their own devices and having them try and ffigure out what they’re going to do once they’re out there,” Woolery said.
