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UPDATE: Owners lure back Brentwood Bay serval with prawn treats

Cassia found in true cat form, sunning herself on a neighbourhood patio
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Brentwood Bay serval Cassia enjoys the indoors but discovered a way to explore, letting herself out the back door on Oct. 6. (Courtesy Sylvia Lammers)

A Brentwood Bay woman has been happily reunited with her pet serval after more than two days of worry.

Sylvia Lammers and her husband Don’s three-year-old cat Cassia let herself out the back door Wednesday (Oct. 5) morning.

Thursday night a neighbour spotted the cat chasing a rabbit, and a team from ROAM (Reuniting Owners with Animals Missing) went out with traps and surveillance, which captured an image of Cassia Friday morning. Her family figured they’d take a tour near the trap while out postering the neighbourhood and decided to scope a long, remote driveway at the edge of a wooded area, overlooking the water. That’s when Don spotted her sitting in the sun on the patio, Lammers told Black Press Media.

“I spent time talking to her from a distance, Don went to get her crate. I put it about 10 feet from her continuing to coax with prawn bits,” Lammers said. Cassia wasn’t terribly interested in the snack – she did eat one – so Lammers put a few in the cat’s crate. Cassia instead decided to lay down on a path near the patio.

“I decided to get to her level. I just slowly walked past her and behind her. She got up and literally trotted into the crate. I shut the door and melted in a blubbery pool of tears,” Lammers said.

The family plans to put contraptions on the door handles now that Cassia has learned to open them.

It’s been an eventful week for servals on Vancouver Island, a pair of serval cats escaped from an enclosure in a neighbourhood near Qualicum Beach on Oct. 2. One was captured, but not before it killed a neighbour’s pet domestic feline. The other remains at large. The couple in that case feels the enclosure may have been intentionally opened.

Lammers noted servals are not good pets for just anyone.

“They only make good pets for the people that know them, are familiar with them, are prepared to provide them with what they need. It is not a good pet for everyone. It is not like having a regular domestic household pet,” Lammers said.

Cassia is a rescue they’ve had since she was six months old, precisely because someone realized her breed was not a good fit for them.

READ ALSO: 1 escaped serval cat caught, another still on the loose near Qualicum Beach

christine.vanreeuwyk@blackpress.ca


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