![]() The next day, the incident became headline news, and Keahey was forced to surrender Ranger to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Keahey knew that was a terrible idea and reported the incident. The friend offered to tell people it was a dog bite so Keahey wouldn’t have to give up her cougar. Just three puncture wounds and a crying child. Before she could yell, “Don’t!” the boy stepped into the enclosure, and Ranger grabbed his leg and bit him. Out of the corner of her eye, Keahey saw a friend open the gate to Ranger’s cage. The boy was going crazy to get to the cat. One night, a 4-year-old boy wearing shoes that lit up was standing outside Ranger’s enclosure. Tahoe didn’t have front teeth (they were removed by her former owners as a safety precaution), and Ranger was pretty passive, so Keahey would let guests interact with the two, as long as she supervised. ![]() And she loved showing them off at house parties. Keahey didn’t have experience with big cats before Tahoe, but she was excited to raise the two. Three years later, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, so impressed by how she was raising Tahoe, brought Keahey a male cougar, whom she named Ranger. Keahey couldn’t bear to see that happen, so she took the cougar home. The cougar arrived for a bath, but her owners never returned. Tahoe was 18 months old when her owners dropped her off at the vet clinic in Wylie where Keahey was working. In her 13 years running the sanctuary, Keahey hadn’t seen anything like it. Surrounded by 85 pecan trees, it houses roofed-in cages, bathing pools, and plenty of room for her 56 exotic and 21 domestic cats to roam.Īlthough Keahey and her team (six full-time employees, one part-timer, and 120 volunteers) have nursed many of their rescues back to good health, they were unable to fend off the canine distemper virus that took the lives of seven cats and threatened nearly two dozen others this summer. Her 12-acre facility is outfitted to do just that. Essentially, to make sure they don’t die. Keahey has made it her life’s mission to rescue and protect exotic cats. There are some cats that I’d rather not be reminded of that we lost.” “Every corner that you turn, there’s a memorial there. ![]() “The memorials that are on the fence are really bothering me,” Keahey says. An orange sign with bold white lettering remains, listing Tacoma’s name, birth date, and rescue date. Instead of the 400-pound Siberian tiger greeting visitors, the area sits empty, enclosed by a fence covered in ribbons, stuffed animals, and flowers. Walking the grounds of In-Sync Exotics Wildlife Rescue and Education Center in Wylie, Vicky Keahey looks into Tacoma’s home. ![]()
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