Back in my late teens, I rescued and raised an orphaned endangered Jaguarundi cub, after her Mom's habit of raiding farmer's chickens cost her Mom's life. I named her Toma, and bought her back to South Orange NJ to raise her up at home. Toma, belongs to the group of wild cats known as small cats, and unlike big cats, many of these small and medium sized wild cats rarely receive the needed awareness and necessary help to save them from harm and extinction. In the Wild, these small cats can be found in various parts of the world in all types of sizes, variations and habitats. Consider to be one of the smallest of all the wild small cat spices, Jaguarundis can weigh 6 to 20 pounds measuring 12 to 20 inches in height and grow up to 4 feet long. Jaguarundi R also the close relatives of large cat cougars, and a distance genetic relative of the cheetah big cats. A long time ago all kinds of various mountain and low land Jaguarundis thrived in the wild spanning from the USA to South America. Unfortunately, like the fait of Toma's Mom, many were killed for killing farmer's Chickens or were victims to mass habitat lost from human development. Toma was a rare low land South Western Jaguarundi. Which, at one time were commonly found throughout South Western United States and Mexico. Currently, it is believed only 200 to 300 South Western Jaguarundi remain left in the wild, and less than 50 remain in the USA. Presently in captivity, only 4 exist, which is not enough gene diversity to start a breeding population.

What can be done from keeping many of these forgotten wild small cats from extinction?
1. For starters U can learn more about them by googling Jaguarundi and small cats.
2. Ask your Zoo to start a breeding program for any endangered small cat that needs a breeding program.
3. Small Cats R NOT man eaters and pose no danger to human life. So a political solution of carefully moving some of them to more safer places to live, will work too.
4. If U have any ideas, let me know.

The following are some pictures of Toma when I was raising her:

1. Me and Toma.

2. My Dad holding Toma at home, when she's was a few months old.

3. Toma loved the kitchen, and made it her den, which she ruled.

4. Toma drinking water at the back door in the kitchen.

5. My Dad holding her again by the back door.

6. My Mom trying to keep her on a chair. Toma hated that chair. To shakey.