PORTAGE COUNTY, Wis. — Deputies in a central Wisconsin county had their hands full when they rescued a bobcat that was trapped in the front grille of a vehicle on Tuesday.
“I have a bobcat in my car,” is what a Portage County dispatcher received and the call was legitimate, WSAW-TV reported.
Well hello, kitty.
“You can only imagine what everyone was thinking at the time, so when they dispatched over the radio numerous deputies were curious,” Sheriff Mike Lukas said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
The driver told deputies they did not see anything on the highway but heard their vehicle strike something, WSAW reported. When the motorist pulled over, they saw the big cat inside the front bumper, according to the television station.
That puzzled the three deputies who responded, so they called for help from a wildlife official
“My deputies are really good at solving problems but this one baffled them so we called in reinforcements with Conservation Warden Bryan Lockman,” Lukas wrote on Facebook. “As you can see on the bodycam footage Warden Lockman was a pro at getting the critter out and in his truck and returned it to the wild.”
Lockman used a pole to remove the bobcat and tossed it into the back of his truck, according to video deputies took at the scene. While irritated, the bobcat did not appear to be injured.
The wildlife official then drove away and let the big cat back into its habitat.
“Nice job!” one Facebook member wrote in response to the sheriff’s office post. “I sometimes have more than I wanna deal with getting just a 10-pound cat into and out of the carrier for a trip to the vet!”
“All in a day’s work at the Portage County Sheriff’s Office and the Wisconsin DNR,” Lukas wrote.