Carlo – In Memory

In Memory

We’re devastated to share the news that cougar Carlo, of our ‘5 wild group,’ had to be humanely euthanized. It happened suddenly and we’re still trying to wrap our heads around his loss.

I’m so thankful for the caretakers paying such close attention to every single cat. And our vet team who intervenes on a moment’s notice so that one our beloved residents never has to suffer.

Caretakers noticed Carlo wasn’t interested in his meal and had labored breathing.  Immediately, our vet performed an emergency procedure because Carlo had bloat – a deadly condition when the stomach flips.  It happens in large breed dogs, but we’ve never had it happen in a big cat.

Once our vet fixed the bloat, we did more radiographs to determine why it happened.  Sadly, we found that Carlo had an advanced fungal infection (blastomycosis) in his lungs.  It’s a fungus that releases spores and can come on fast.

It’s rarely successfully treated in wildcats. Sadly, our vet said that his stomach would twist again since he was swallowing air.  A twisted stomach would be a painful death.

Our vet thinks Carlo was susceptible to blastomycosis because of the immune suppressant he was on to keep his skin allergies in check.  It just doesn’t seem fair.  He was almost 13 years old.

But I don’t want Carlo to be remembered for his death. Instead, I want to celebrate who he was and the 13 years he brought so much joy to us and his companions.

After being orphaned in the wild, Carlo arrived with his siblings Noah and Langley when they were just six weeks old. He grew up at the sanctuary and his cougar family grew to five as we introduced them to more orphaned cubs we rescued, Donoma and Andre.

At an early age, we discovered Carlo loved toy balls.  No, I mean REALLY loved them.  So much so that he became known as the soccer playing cougar.  His antics always amazed us and brought a smile to our face.

He never carried the ball in his mouth, but instead used his front arms to toss and carry the ball to wherever he was.

Dribbling the ball along the long fence line was his favorite past time.  But he held up feeding time in the building because Carlo had to ensure his ball came inside with him.

We could hear the ball hit the outside wall several times before getting the winning shot through the guillotine door into his room.

But he still wasn’t ready to eat.  First, he needed to slam dunk his ball perfectly in the water bucket where it was a tight fit.

After eating, he banged the ball all over his room. His playtime started to cause damage to the walls, so we had to reinforce them with plastic.

But if that wasn’t impressive enough, Carlo would also sit upright, hold his ball, and bring it into their 4-foot-high pool. Seeing a fully submerged wet cougar tossing a ball was quite a sight to see, especially as he balanced on the rim.

But what amazed his fans and family the most was when he would manage to carry the ball in his front arms, tossing it up the first platform, then the next and the next until it was up on the 16-foot-high platform with him.

Even with several balls in their habitat, we rarely saw the other cougars have as much fun with the toy ball as Carlo did.  That is, until a few days after Carlo’s passing.

Caretaker Alyssa captured an amazing moment.  Langley, the most aloof cougar of the ‘5 Wild’ group, brought a ball inside her bedroom and was playing with it just like Carlo had!!  We had to take a double take to believe what we were seeing.  It was tears of happiness and sadness all wrapped into one.

It just proves that Carlo will always be with us and his cougar family.  He lives on with his siblings, in our hearts, and in our memories.

There will never be another soccer playing Carlo, but I’m happy to see he has left a lasting impression on the team he leaves behind.