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A bobcat kitten found wandering alone at a Los Gatos construction site has found its way to Morgan Hill’s Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center, where its current caretakers are preparing the animal to be released back into the wild this fall.The kitten, nicknamed “Gato,” was first taken to San Jose Animal Services when it was found wandering all alone a few weeks ago. Upon realizing the animal was a wild bobcat rather than a lost housecat, staff at the San Jose facility transferred the 5-week-old, 560-gram feline to Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. WCSV took care of the kitten for about three weeks, then transferred the animal to WERC, which specializes in the rehabilitation of orphaned, injured wild bobcats, according to WERC Educational Coordinator Anna Venneman.“Initially, he would not eat at all. They had to tube feed him,” Venneman said.Gato spent two weeks in an indoor nursery at WERC before he was ready to be transferred to an outdoor enclosure. Before making the transfer, WERC staff and volunteers brought him to Princevalle Pet Hospital in Gilroy for a checkup and shots, Venneman said.After the checkup, Gato was placed in WERC’s outdoor enclosure in west Morgan Hill with the help of a surrogate bobcat “mother,” a WERC volunteer dressed in a bobcat costume. Venneman explained this procedure helps ensure the wild animal doesn’t associate “positive interaction” with humans they might encounter when released back into the wild.“That could get them hurt, or hurt the human,” she said. “We try to disguise our scent (with) sage and bobcat urine. You can’t do any normal human postures…The only time they get human interaction is when they go to the vet.”WERC has rescued and rehabilitated dozens of bobcats—which are common throughout Santa Clara County—over the years. Gato is its first bobcat of 2016. Venneman said WERC hopes to release Gato back into the wild, near where he was found, this fall.

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