Tribute to Katmandu the Siberian Lynx

Anal electrocution was the only way to escape the fur farm…at least as far as Katmandu knew, until the day his older brother made a gallant run for it. Moments later though, the sickening sound of the shot gun blast and Katmandu knew he would never see his big brother alive again. There was little consolation in the fact that his brother's pelt was now too riddled with holes to become another fur fashion.

Katmandu had seen things that you just can't get over. His siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles all killed and skinned for their fur. He and Stalker had been spared because they were the biggest and most handsome lynx yet and their owner knew that their size and looks would pass on even better coats to "harvest." They weighed 90 pounds each when grown.

When we arrived in 1993 Katmandu was only a year old, but he had seen the inhumanity that man was capable of and would never forget it. His little sister, Natasha, was too young to have witnessed or remembered the horrors of the fur farm and while they shared a similar birth, in the tiny, steel, wire floored cages in a metal Minnesota shed, their attitudes going forward were as different as night and day.

One of the first cages built at Big Cat Rescue housed Katmandu. Most cats figure out pretty quickly that coming here really is life on "Easy Street" but I don't remember a time in those early years that Katmandu didn't puff at me and strike the side of his cage whenever I would walk by. I always tried to give him an extra wide berth so as to not frighten him into such displays but, unlike the rest of the cats here, he never trusted me.

When we had to give the cats vaccines in the early days it usually meant netting them, which involved chasing them around until we could net them and inject them. Not Katmandu. To vaccinate him meant at least three big guys with nets and all of us dressed in enough padding to have been hockey goalies. The moment we stepped into the cage it was "game on" and the game for Katmandu was to see how many of us he could take down before I got him with the needle.

Thankfully our cage designs improved over the years so that the cats had a lockout area where we feed them every day that became the area we could call them into for shots. That became easier and easier through our operant conditioning program where the cats learn that coming into lockout is almost always something good like food and treats. But, not Katmandu.

It didn't matter that 364 days out of the year there would be something good about coming into lockout, he wasn't going to do it if there was any chance that a human was going to try and get anywhere near him. For 10 years Katmandu was the scariest cat on the property. No matter how much all of us tried to show our love and respect for him, I never saw any change in his ferocity until 2003 when he met, and fell in love with Dr. Liz Wynn.

She worked tirelessly with him and his cage mate Kanawha until she gained their trust. I didn't see how she initiated operant conditioning with them, but was just stopped dead in my tracks one day when I saw the result. She was standing over Katmandu who was in his lockout, looking up at her with adoration and expectation as she was giving commands and treats on a stick. There was no growling. No puffing threats at her. No slashing claws. Just Katmandu and what could only be described as puppy love in his demeanor.

I began to take note that every time she walked by he came, on the run, to see if she would stop and talk with him. It was one of those little pleasures that put a smile on my face every time I saw it because I felt that finally this brave cat had found a soul mate here, not only in Kanawha, but also in Dr. Wynn. All of the cats here have Keepers and Partners who are especially dear to them and we often note that they pick you rather than the other way around, but to see Katmandu have a person he trusted was something extraordinary.

There may have been others here who he came to love. There were certainly many who tried to gain his favor, but I never saw anything like what I saw between Katmandu and Dr. Wynn.

There is a lot that love can do, but it can't stop the ravages of time. When Keepers reported that Katmandu had his third eyelid up and was unsteady on his feet and drooling, we knew something was wrong. For the first time in the 18 years that I have known Katmandu he didn't rush over to threaten me when Jamie and I went to check on him. Over the years his arthritis had become so bad that he was on two strong painkillers both night and day. His back leg now had an even worse gait and it turned out that the cause of the third eyelid being up and the drooling was because of an abscessed tooth. His kidney values six years ago had not been good, but now they were really bad and at the age of 19 were only going to get worse.

The odd gait turned out to be a torn ligament in his knee that would have required extensive surgery and many weeks or months of recovering in a small cage in the cat hospital. There is no way that Katmandu would have been able to withstand the fear of such tight confinement as it would have been too much like the fur farm cage of his youth. He had already lived 7 years longer than anyone would expect a Siberian Lynx to live and it had been a pretty good life for a cat in a cage.

He had been able to retain his command over all around him and had lived a life of dignity. He had made a friend in a vet who would now help him ease over into the life beyond the walls of his cage. He had taught us all how awful the fur industry was by his refusal to ever forget those who were not as lucky and he, Kanawha, Natasha, Willow, Apollo and Zeus were to escape.

We will never forget Katmandu and will never forget why we endure the trials we suffer to end the trade in these great cats as pets, props and for their parts and fur.

I've been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.