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Giselle the Serval Gets A New Home

July 5, 2016

Giselle-4849On June 30, we received a message from a woman who had rescued a Serval. She worked as a pet food rep at various veterinary clinics and through her visits had witnessed a young Serval practically living at one of her client’s locations. She lived in Little Rock, AR and on July 1, three staff members made the 4-hour trip to pick up the newest Turpentine Creek family member, Giselle the Serval.

Giselle had been purchased as a kitten from New York and brought down to Arkansas to be a pet for a family. The family had three children, all under the age of 10, and quickly found out that a Serval did not make a good family pet. The family had Giselle front declawed and spayed immediately after they got her, but that didn’t stop her from acting like the wild animal she is. Between her spay/declaw and somehow breaking her back leg, she spent most of her young life living at the veterinary clinic.

Finally, the vet confronted the owners telling them that one of their pet food reps would be willing to take Giselle and either keep her herself or give it to a refuge. The family agreed and Giselle found herself out of a tiny cage and into a big home with two rescue cats.

Image-2The woman who had rescued Giselle knew about Turpentine Creek. She had visited often in the past but had not been to the refuge in a while. She worried that we would not have space for the sweet Serval that she had rescued, so her first contact with us was to see if we could get her more information on the proper nutrition of a 7-month-old Serval.

After only having Giselle for a week, she knew that the big cat would not be happy living with her. Although she had two other rescue cats (regular domestic cats), Giselle was too big to really enjoy playing with her feline friends.

Through conversation, she realized that we had moved Bowden, our other Serval, out of the small compound and into a larger habitat and that we had some space available for a rescue. Once she knew that we had grassy space for Giselle, she asked us to take over Giselle’s care.

Giselle’s rescuer was sad to see her go but happy that she would have a big space to run and play in and hopefully a friend her size. She did her best to get Giselle out of a bad situation and into a proper home.

ImageGiselle is currently staying at Rescue Ridge. She will remain there until she is seen by our veterinarian and her quarantine period is over. Once she is given the “all clear” by our vet we will decide on where she will be living on a more permeant basis. We hope to possibly introduce her to Bowden, but he is an older Serval and we are not sure how an introduction with such a young Serval will go.

Time will tell but we are already seeing a big change in Giselle. Giselle is very vocal and will ‘meow’ at all the staff and interns that come to visit. She is loving being outside and even enjoys people (and mower) watching. The staff and interns have already fallen in love with her and she is a perfect addition to the Turpentine Creek family.

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