While sightings of coyotes, bobcats, fishers, and moose have entranced Weston for the last year, it is clear we will need to level up to compete with our neighbors to the north, Lincoln. On Monday, January 3, the Lincoln community server lit up with sightings of an African serval (first identified as a mountain lion, then a bobcat, then a fancy domestic cat, and then people actually put their contacts in). Servals are native to Africa, hate a New England winter, and are illegally kept as domestic pets in Massachusetts by very bad people. The bad people have not been identified, but the good people have and they are Lincolnites…and MSPCA and US Fish & Wildlife.

After the identification had been confirmed, it was time to catch the serval who apparently liked Tyson’s frozen chicken nuggets. There is no accounting for taste. MSPCA finally captured him yesterday afternoon in a garage where he was raiding the frozen dinners and he was brought in for veterinary examination and x-rays. Bruno, as he is now called, is very thin and has a severely broken leg–an injury that is several months old and may require amputation. When he is patched up, he will find a new home in a wild animal sanctuary. [Update January 11: Bruno will sadly need to have his leg amputated. After recovery, he will be send to Wildcat Sanctuary in Minnesota. You can follow his care on the MSPCA page her and donate to the Wildcat Sanctuary here].

You can follow Bruno’s story now on MSPCA’s facebook page and contribute to his care. Does anyone here think Betty White is smiling now? Me too.

And as is inevitable, the Owl ends with the usual: Go ‘cats!