Bruno the serval cat is on his way to his forever home in Minnesota after successful surgery to amputate his right hind leg, which was broken in two places when he was rescued in Lincoln earlier this month.
Bruno was captured by workers from the MSPCA/Angell Memorial Hospital on January 4 in the garage of Martin Pierce and Mary Jo Haggerty on Partridge Lane after their Deerhaven Road neighbor, Vic Saleme, called in the alert. The thin, limping cat had been spotted several times in the same neighborhood in previous days.
Because of the pain he was experiencing, surgeons amputated his broken leg on January 12 and also neutered him (cats of all sizes adapt very well to having only three legs, the MSPCA noted). While he was awaiting surgery in his Boston enclosure, he enjoyed playing with balls and other toys (even gathering them into his bed at night), though he slept with his injured leg dangling out of his house because it was painful for him to bend or put weight on it. The MSPCA’s Instagram feed has a dedicated Bruno story with lots of photos, videos, and information based on questions submitted by users about Bruno and servals in general.
Servals are wild animals native to sub-Saharan Africa. The MSPCA has speculated that Bruno was acquired illegally as a pet or to breed Savannah cats (a cross between a serval and a domestic cat), and he either escaped or was abandoned when he became too much to handle. They emphasized that servals do not make good pets and are illegal to own or breed. Savannah cats are also illegal in Massachusetts unless they are at least four generations removed from the serval ancestor.
“Bruno’s story makes us both sad and mad,” says the Bruno page on the website of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN, which reached out to the MSCPA to offer assistance when they heard Bruno’s story. “As more and more people believe that servals, bobcats and hybrids can be great pets, we’re seeing reports all over the country of ‘escaped’ exotics. These cats can’t survive on their own. Many have been declawed. All see humans as a source of food. Bruno is the poster child of the horrible things that can happen when they escape. We don’t know if he was hit by a car, but the breaks in his rear leg are extensive and could be months old. Can you imagine this poor cat trying to survive a bitter winter with a broken leg?”
Experts from the sanctuary confirmed that Bruno is a full-blood serval and not a hybrid.
“Not only will Bruno live out his live at a sanctuary that offers him a natural and safe habitat with heated, indoor buildings, but is going to a place that shares the MSPCA’s values: that wild animals do not exist for our entertainment,” Kara Holmquist, director of advocacy for the MSPCA, said in a statement.
Bruno, who is about a year old, was very thin when he was captured. Since X-rays revealed his injury was several months old, it’s a bit of a mystery as to how Bruno survived in the New England woods with his painful leg. MSPCA spokesman Rob Halpin speculated that he may have foraged for scraps or handouts or perhaps hunted for small rodents and/or birds “to the extent that he could.”
Handouts were undoubtedly a big reason the serval hung out in the Lincoln neighborhood for a while. Saleme fed him Tyson chicken nuggets — and when Tyson saw the story, they FedExed him a dozen two-pound bags of nuggets packed in dry ice (see photo in gallery below).
After Bruno first came to the MSCPA, the organization set up a fund for donations to defray costs of his veterinary care, and animal lovers opened their wallets. “We’re happy to report that about $12,000 has come in from donors across the state. That’s far more than the $5,000 needed for his surgery so the balance will stay in a restricted account called Pet Care Assistance, which meets the medical needs of homeless animals in our shelters and is never used for things like salaries, building maintenance, etc.,” Halpin said.
The Wildcat Sanctuary also welcomes donations for general purposes or to sponsor a cat (though it’s unclear whether you can choose a specific animal by name).
Bruno will join 15 other servals and many more big cats at the sanctuary (go to this page and click on “Serval” to see photos). On January 16, the organization posted on its Facebook page about Bruno’s journey to Minnesota. “We will definitely do a more comprehensive video all about his surgery, his journey home, and how he was doing when he’s safe at his forever home at the Wildcat Sanctuary,” they wrote. “For now, all focus is on getting that little boy home safely.”
