A wild bobcat found itself in a very tricky situation, after its hind paws got frozen on the train tracks in British Columbia. Fortunately, the helpless animal got a second chance, thanks to a train crew who saved it in the nick of time. But it wasn’t an easy rescue though as a train was about to pass by within minutes and the scared animal was pretty difficult to approach.
It was just a regular day at the office for Coby Reid – who works as a railroad inspector in Trail, BC – and his colleagues. It was pretty early in the morning when the crew begun the tracks inspection as part of their daily routine. The team has to make sure there are no obstacles on the trails. Only this time, it wasn’t like that. Just when they got close to the Columbia River, they spotted something stuck on the tracks.
As the crew got closer, the men realized there was a bobcat. Coby and his team initially thought the wild feline doesn’t want to leave, since its breakfast – well, what left from it – (a duck, it probably hunted) was in front of it. But they soon figured out, the bobcat is actually unable to leave. Due to the extreme cold, its paws got stuck to the tracks.
With less than half an hour left until the next train had to pass by, the crew knew they have to act fast if it’s about to rescue the helpless bobcat. So they decided to carefully approached the animal, cover its head with one of their jackets, and then free it. But the rescue proved far more difficult than they thought as the bobcat felt threatened when the crew approached it, and it was far from acting nicely. Nonetheless, the devoted men eventually succeed to set the poor animal free!
“At first we approached it, and we were going to actually cover it up with a coat,” Coby told Radio West. “It definitely wasn’t the cute cat that you see in the picture.”
The crew even caught on camera the rescue, and later Coby shared an update on Facebook. “Saved this little guy today he was enjoying his breakfast (duck) and froze to the rail,” he wrote. “We got some warm water and freed him up.”
Take a peek!
— CalgaryBuffalo (@calgary_buffalo) February 20, 2021