Morocco – In Memory

History

Morocco is a male African serval who came to live at The Wildcat Sanctuary in 2000. He was just over a year old and came with his brother Mufasa.  Their story is best told by a letter we received from their previous owner:

I am the owner of two African servals. I found you in my search to find them a new home, and feel you may be able to help me. Please let me explain. I love my cats with all my heart and soul and am devastated that I cannot keep them. I am 18 and soon to leave for college…My reasoning for wanting to give them a new home is that I feel they are wild animals and need more freedom than I can give them. In fact, I feel that these beautiful creatures should never be kept in captivity at all, but now it is too late.

My Servals were given to me by my father who loves to give extravagant gifts, but did not realize that they should have acres to run. This choice is breaking my heart and I will forever dedicate time and resources to reserves and zoos, like yourself. And also in educating people that no matter how kind you can make an animal, wild animals should never be made household pets. They are so great and deserve so much, much more.

Life at the Sanctuary

For years now, Morocco, nicknamed Rocky, and Mufasa have been able to live with other servals in a large free-roaming outdoor habitat here at the sanctuary. They also have access to a temperature-controlled indoor building where they cuddle up with the other sanctuary servals.

Their habitat includes perches, tall shade trees, pools, and hammocks.  Both Morocco and Mufasa now live life truly wild at heart, as they both deserve.

How You Can Help

Caring for wildcats, whether big or small, is an expensive undertaking.  A nutritious diet, quality veterinary care for life, habitat improvements and enrichment are all things you can help us provide through our sponsorship program.  It’s a wonderful way to know you’ve made a difference.

Would you consider becoming Morocco’s sponsor parent?  It’s easy to do using the buttons you’ll find at the top of this page.

Thank you for your compassionate support!

Updates

In Memory

Saying goodbye to a lifelong friend

With heavy hearts, we’ve helped our serval Morocco pass on. Our oldest resident at almost 22 years old, Morocco’s body began shutting down and his age had caught up with him.

Morocco, also lovingly known as Rocky, didn’t only live wild at heart, but he lived young at heart.

Surrendered at just a year old, he and his brother Mufasa were bought as a sweet 16 birthday present for a young lady.  That lady chose to surrender them after a year, wiring us a letter that she and her family had made a wrong decision trying to make pets out of wild animals.

Rocky had been sick the first year of his life and had surgery for a bowel obstruction. This caused scarring in his intestine. He was fed a boneless diet with vitamins his entire life.

But that didn’t stop Rocky from trying to catch voles and other wildlife in his free-roaming habitat.  When he was a successful hunter, we had to watch him closely to make sure he could properly digest his wild prey.

For the past 21 years, Rocky truly enjoyed his life at the Sanctuary.  He was the most social of all the servals we rescued over the years and had a very different personality than his brother.

His personality was very uncharacteristic of a serval. Servals usually only imprint on one human, they prefer company of each other, and they can often be heard hissing as humans approach.

But not Rocky. He was always at the fence talking to his humans and purring so loudly you could hear it from several feet away. He could also be heard purring the entire time he ate his meal.

He loved other cats as well and always had roommates, up until the last few months of his life.  But he had neighbors and liked greeting them along the shared wall.

Every memory I have of Rocky makes me smile. He was so happy every day, reminding me why I started a sanctuary. And I know the interns and staff feel the same way.

Over the last few months, we could see Rocky becoming weak. He walked lower in his back end, slept more, and began getting picky with food.

We tried different treatments to help, but it was clear his entire body systems were shutting down. It was time to let our dear friend go in peace.

As difficult as it is to say good-bye to Rocky, there isn’t much more a caregiver can ask for than our furry friends living to a ripe old age and giving us 21 years of joy, smiles and love.

If our work can make one rescued cat as happy as Rocky was, it makes all the hard days worth it.

Rocky, spread your happiness wherever your forever free journey takes you.  You will bring smiles wherever you go.

 

 

 

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