Critter, Abandoned by Mom, Put Inside Backpack
FRIDAY, May 13, 2016 – A man, his girlfriend and his sister came to the aid of a bobcat cub along the Santa Ana River bike trail near Fairmount Park today.
The man’s girlfriend and his sister were riding bikes along the trail between Mission Inn Avenue and Market Street when they noticed the bobcat and a sibling on the opposite side of a fence from their mother. They helped one of the cubs to the mother, but she ran off with the one baby and left the other one behind.
A pair of crows were getting too close to the scene and one of them swooped in and came within inches of the abandoned cub. That’s when the women, Winda Bosquez, 42, and Amber LaFortune, 27, realized it was better to save the cub before it became a meal to other wildlife.
They picked it up and placed it inside a backpack. When they returned to their encampment in the Santa Ana riverbottom, LaFortune’s boyfriend, Mike Lairy, 39, made the appropriate calls to authorities.
Riverside County Animal Services Officer Lorena Barron-Lopez responded and retrieved the bobcat and transported the bobcat to the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley. The bobcat cub appears to be about 3 months old and is in very healthy condition.
Riverside County Animal Services is now in contact with state Fish & Wildlife to make appropriate next steps for the bobcat cub.
