Disclaimer:
All of the cougars in the following article were animals Turpentine Creek rescued in the past. They have all since crossed over The Rainbow Bridge.
Turpentine Creek has rescued many cougars in the past from bad situations in nearby communities. Some of the more famous cougars were:
Spitty Smitty
5/14/1985 – 11/23/2005
Spitty Smitty was a cougar rescued from Boone County along with nine other cats and a llama. Smitty had been locked in a 100 gallon oil drum that was covered in excriment, and no access to food or water. Due to his trauma, he had a history of trying to attack every animal he was put in a habitat with, so he enjoyed a room to himself during his time at Turpentine. He was called Spitty Smitty because he would spit at anyone who came near him.
Jasper
3/4/1990 – 2/28/2006
Jasper was purchased to be a mascot for a Mercury car dealership, so the man that purchased him had Jasper neutered, declawed, and his canine teeth removed. When the Ford company refused to allow the man to use a cougar as their mascot, he began keeping Jasper inside a 4x4x4 cage in his warehouse. The cougar never saw daylight except when he was occasionally fed or watered for four years. Eventually the man asked his vet to euthanize Jasper, but the vet refused and brought Jasper to Turpentine Creek. After that Jasper got used to his new home at Turpentine Creek and began to notice and enjoy playing with his new neighbors at his lifetime sanctuary.
Sabrina
2/14/1989 – 12/29/2000
Sabrina was a cougar from Doddridge, Arkansas that had been raised as a house pet, she did not even have a cage. She came in and out of the owners’ house like any pet and even played with their dogs – all except for one little terrier which she was afraid of, when that dog was around she would hide. At about 2 years of age she began to disappear, and after tracking her down many times, the owners decided to build a cage. Then, she was declawed very badly, which would have given her a lifetime of horrible pain, but the founders of Turpentine Creek made a trade to get her out of the cage and to the refuge. Here, she was given pain management medication throughout the rest of her life and a lifetime sanctuary.
Mongo
5/26/1996 – 6/17/2002
Mongo was a cougar from Tahlequah, Oklahoma that had been purchased as a cub by a police officer from a roadside zoo in Gentry, Arkansas for $500. When Mongo was about 2 years old his owner left him at his uncle’s home to care for him. The uncle was a disabled veteran and was unable to care for a cougar, so he called Turpentine Creek to rescue the cat and give him a better home, which we happily did for many years.
Sasha & Wishbone
1/6/2002 – 3/31/2008
The rescue of these two cougars was very disturbing. The TCWR staff were enroute to pick up these two cougars as planned when they received a phone call from a hysterical woman who said the cougars’ owner had gone into their cage to say goodbye to them when Wishbone (the male cougar) had attacked the man. Luckily, the man’s wife had managed to drag her husband out of the cage before the cougar killed him. Moments before TCWR staff arrived, the injured man and his wife were airlifted to a hospital. Fish and Game officers met TCWR owners, Scott and Tanya, upon their arrival and were very relieved to see them. Both cougars were transported to Turpentine Creek where they were quarantined for several weeks because of the attack on the owner, and later released into habitats, where they could live out their lives in peace.
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge is a true sanctuary for animals that have been abused, neglected or abandoned. We have rescued over 500 animals in 32 years and this is the forever home to every rescued animal.