The infamous Ollie, the bobcat who vanished from the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is safe at home once again — in fact, she was never really gone, just hiding out on the zoo grounds. The 25 pound bobcat, who officials believe escaped through a hole in the mesh around her habitat, was examined and found to be in good health.
(RE: Hovertext) Who could blame you, Ollie? I wonder if she had any fun while she was loose?
Good to know Ollie is safe!
This picture from the hippo update page!
Keep the good stories coming zoos!
I’m dying here. Love little Fifi.
Welcome home, Ollie.
Great pic! I think she’s looking pinker and blorpier, don’t you?
There’s an update today that says that the preemie unit at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital sent a package to Fiona’s care team that included signed superhero capes, a pre-filled baby book, a stuffed hippo, a beautiful note and much more. Aww! One preemie team supporting another — I love it!
Argh! That is so darned adorable I’m gobsmacked!.
Gah! The chinny-chin hair!
I was too focused on the tooflessness to notice that!
Speaking of escape artists, I have a story to share about Ani the rabbit. Ani spends a lot of time on my front porch, looking at the yard through the screen. From time to time, I let her roam in the yard under my supervision, and she enjoys this very much.
Today, I heard scratching from the porch, and came out to discover she had clawed a hole in the screen and escaped! I let her roam for a bit since she was already out, but once I got her back in, I blocked off the screen with a partition. Now I think I need to replace all the screening with something stronger than the mesh that’s there now.
There is a definite skip to the heart beat upon first realization that a fur baby has escaped.
I’m glad she is safe. You are such a good bunny daddy taking care of her. 🙂
You ain’t kiddin! When I used to have gerbils, sometimes the plastic tubing would come apart and the wee ones ( I only ever had two at a time) would run free.
I’d come home and see a tiny white dart shoot across the floor! They always came when I called them though, so no big deal.
That reminds me, my now teen, when in 1st grade had a hamster that lived atop his dresser. We came home one day to our then cat having gotten in his room and knocked over the cage. We couldn’t find the hamster. Fast forward to the middle of the night. “Mom, I’m scared. I hear scratching from over there.” Open his tee shirt drawer and low and behold there he is. My son proudly wore those shirts with holes because they were decorations from his hamster.
We had a hamster who was a regular escape artist. She finally got out and found somewhere to hide where I could NOT find her — until one morning when I came out and found her and the cat calmly sharing the bowl of cat food! I wish I had a picture of that, it was the most ridiculously cute thing I’ve ever seen!
My first and last pet mouse managed to get out of his cage when my mother didn’t fasten the door properly after cleaning it. She re-entered the room just in time to see him sprinting across the floor, under the piano…and INSIDE the piano, from whence it took four hours to tempt him out with sunflower seeds. Despite my tearful entreaties he was returned to the pet shop later that day.
Aww, I’m sorry. You should try again now that you’re an adult! Rodents are great pets! I have all good memories of my time the gerbils.
Actually, I had THAT scare the very first day she was with me. I didn’t see her on the porch and assumed she had somehow escaped. But she was hiding between her cage and the wall the whole time, and I didn’t know she could do that.
You can use hardware cloth anywhere she might be able to escape through. I had to outfit my chinchilla cages with some around the bottom half to keep dangerous kitty paws out. Mostly I just keep her out of the room, but I feel better knowing if she followed me in for a bit I don’t have to kick her out immediately.
Good suggestion. I’m also thinking about replacing the screen with a stronger pet-resistant screen.
Oh, that must’ve been scary! Glad she stayed close to home.
Rabbits: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Determined little buggers.
Oh, the joys of a bunny!! They can chew thru things you can’t imagine they could. Mesh is a BREEZE!! Freckles, my lop bunny, has chewed HUGE holes in her cage to where I’ve had to put a steel hinge into a hole to keep her from gnawing it more. She has a hole in the side of her HUGE pen on both ends. She’s now got a huge hole thru the plastic mesh floor in one corner. She has more ‘chewy’ toys than anyone could imagine. She has no litter pan because she’ll eat that, too. Or yank it loose from the corner that it’s attached to and throw it around her cage. Finally gave up on that one. All of my other bunnies were very well litter-pan trained with no eating their litter pan. If she had access to mesh, it wouldn’t last 2 seconds!! I can’t let her run as she can do more damage in a short time than any of the other bunnies I’ve had in my 50 years of having bunnies over the years. She has even been able to figure out how to lift up the 2 x 8 steel exercise pen all my bunnies have used over the years and escape from under it!! When I first got her, I couldn’t figure out why I saw her run across the floor into the kitchen when I was sitting in the living room. She didn’t CLIMB the exercise pen, she picked it up in her mouth and climbed UNDER it!!
I do have a foldable octagon outdoor exercise pen that has a fitted cover for it so they’re not in the sun or so no raptor can see them but I’m sure she’d lift that one up too and escape. Glad you were able to retrieve Ani and get her back inside. I’d sure hate to hear that a hawk snatched her up.
My problem with our mesh screens is that squirrels also delight in tearing holes in it and come into the porch in search of birdseed as they know that’s where it’s stored. Replacing those HUGE screens gets to be expensive!! Not so much now that I don’t store any whole peanuts in a covered garbage can that one chewed thru a couple of years ago. Did have one a couple of months ago again.
NTMTOM, welcome to bunneh lesson 101. They will try anything to get to where they want to go, it becomes a challenge. Whether it be over, under, around or through whatever is blocking their way. They are great escape artists. Thankfully, Ani, didn’t get far. Score 1 for Ani.
I have a pen all around the edges of the room where I keep my buns to keep them from chewing on the skirting board – also you could use the wire panels from modular shelving – very inexpensive and you can assemble it to the height you want.
Meant to say this the other day, Mike – you’re a very good Bunny Dad.
It sucks when you find out that your pet is smarter than you.
Guess that means that Ani is the new guest host for posts here. Take it awaaayyyy, Ani
That would be hilarious! I can’t wait to find out what happens when Ani takes over for a day.
Yes, like the ‘Family Circus’ comic, where it’s periodically drawn as if the kid has taken over for the day to give Dad a break…
It will need to be really strong! The wild rabbits in my yard chew through the wood fence to make themselves a “door”. We’ve had it fixed twice now (not to mention trying to fix it ourselves a few times), and every time it gets a hole chewed in it within the week! Occasionally I see the bunnies coming and going through there, so I know they’re the culprits.
Good to know Miss Ollie the bobcat is safe. Not that I blame her for trying to find a way out of the nation’s capital.
Snerk
All cats like to roam for a few days every now and again.She basically returned to the zoo on her own steam,after having a catty walkabout.
Yeah, like George Weasleycat! I’m still getting over the trauma.
Ollie voted for Clinton 🙂
She just wanted to attend the Women’s March. Now she’s in her den, tapping out letters to Congress on a smuggled laptop.
😀
Permanent Pussy Hat.
HA HA HA HA!!!!
Ohhhh, yeah.
Sunny the red panda is still missing
http://m.torontosun.com/2017/02/02/wheres-sunny-search-continues-for-red-panda-a-week-after-escaping-virginia-zoo
Thanks for the update! This post got me wondering how Sunny was doing… Jeeze I hope they find her soon!
I see what you did there, Mike.
Poor girl; she was probably doing her Rumi reflections, meditations, visualizing what good deed she was going to do next and realized what sadness was going on, rolled up her rug and said, outta here!