It’s understandable how some people might mistake an alligator for a crocodile or some moths for a butterfly. There are plenty of similarities between the pair of creatures, even though there are marked differences between them.
When a woman from Argentina took her brand new kitten to the veterinarian for a checkup, imagine her surprise when the vet told her the rescue pet wasn’t really what she thought it was…
Florencia Lobo told Reuters that while out and about in the northwest Argentinian province of Tucumán with her brother, the siblings stumbled across a deceased adult cat. Next to it were two forlorn kittens.
Instantly worried about the kittens’ well-being, Florencia took the babies home to care for them herself.
“We thought that it was an abandoned cat who had given birth.”
The female kitten didn’t survive despite Florencia’s best efforts, but the male did. She lovingly named him Tito.
Two months later, Florencia escorted her new baby to the vet to make sure he was thriving. That’s when she learned the startling truth.
“The vet didn’t know what it was but said it was not a normal cat.”
The vet referred her to a local nature reserve, knowing fully well the kitten was not a domesticated animal.
Florencia contacted the Horco Molle nature reserve where she was informed that her sweet baby kitten Tito actually was a jaguarundi, a type of small wild cat native to North and South America better known as a puma. It typically weighs eight to 16 pounds.
Florencia had to relinquish her pet cat-turned-puma to the nature reserve where experts intend to reassimilate him into his natural habitat.
Florencia Lobo thought she was adopting a kitten, but later found out it was a puma jaguarundi pic.twitter.com/ze0se7d99c
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 21, 2019
She apparently isn’t the only animal lover to be completely confused by a pet. People reported that an elderly woman heard scratching at her back sliding door and, assuming it was her pet cat, let the animal inside. Later on that night when she reached down to pick up and cuddle her cat, she realized that the animal she’d been hanging out with actually was a wild raccoon. Sadly, the raccoon was unimpressed with the woman’s affection and bit the woman several times on her arms and face. Thankfully it didn’t cause serious injuries.
An Illinois woman found a stray puppy on the street and took the animal to the police department, worried about its welfare. It turned out the stray pup actually was an eerily similar-looking baby coyote that was turned over to a wildlife rescue.
A family from China believed they were buying a very furry dog.
Instead, their new pet ended up growing into a 250-pound Asiatic black bear that walked around on its hind legs.
It was moved to a wildlife center.
In 10 months’ time, one woman’s dog never barked and began turning up its nose at dog food. She became suspicious and after having her dog examined, was informed her pup actually was a fox. She relinquished the dog-fox to a zoo.
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