We were setting camera traps for tigers but we ended up buying a Leopard Cat. Who would have thought I’d ever buy a wild cat. It was hanging in a tree in a beautiful village in the Rimbang Baling national park.
The four of us were horrified that a nocturnal animal was being kept in a bird cage hanging in a tree in front of someone’s house in the middle of the day.
We had to do something to help – we could not have possibly looked at it and simply walked on. All of us decided that we must rescue this poor creature whatever it took. Luckily it took only £25 thanks to some negotiation with our Indonesian guide (who spoke no English!). Only 5 or 10 minutes after spotting it, I had the cage in my hands, trying not to swing it to much in my haste to get it onto our canoe and hoping the thing would not die on the trip back to our jungle hut.
Word had got to the base camp and a small reception awaited us on the banks. The cat was lifted carefully off the boat and up the steps and quickly put into a small dark room and left to rest. It was difficult to stop people going in to look at it – such a curiosity and excitement was all around the camp.
The first decision was about what on earth we were going to do with it. Buying it was easy – now what! Someone found a cage which used to house a machine. It was cleaned up and decorated with logs, foliage and covered with a waterproof shelter. After an hour or so the new home looked fit for our kitty and the beautiful creature was coaxed out of the bird cage into its new enclosure.
One thing we were not short of was camera traps and so we set one that night and watched as he stalked around his new home, listening to the strange noises of the forest and eating a bit of fish. We were all excited and looking forward to the day it would be released, after two weeks perhaps. We all felt pretty pleased with ourselves.
Unfortunately 4 days later it died and we were all tremendously sad. We had all felt that we had at least rescued one poor creature from a life of excruciating captivity but we were left with a feeling of powerlessness and emptiness.
But those four days were uplifting and full of hope and at least it had four days when it didn’t have to hang in a bird cage from a tree in the middle of a village. Life can be cruel.