Bobcat,bengal or regular kitten??

tldemars333

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Hi everyone! My name is Tammy. I'm new here. I have a question that I have asked several knowledgeable people and they all tell me the same thing but I ran into this site and decided to ask cause y'all seem like ya know what you're talking about:-)
My husbands boss found a "kitten" in a tire at their work. He called me to care for it. Let me describe the situation. The location that he was found is at the very end of a 2 mile long gravel road behind a coded security gate and about 50 ft off of the bank of the lake. It's basically an island but the gravel road meets the mainland so it's not an island. There's one dog that lives at the end of the road that keeps everything (animals) out of the gated area. I haven't seen any cats,kittens ,dogs or puppies back there in over a year. They use to pile up at the dumpster but I think the dog chases them off now....at least I hope that's all that's happening. Anyways,there's are cows,horses,coyotes and bob cats on this property that I have seen in the past. I'm sure much more. The coyotes and bob cats can be heard at night sometimes.
On Wednesday,the boss called me to go pick up the kitten. When I got there I automatically thought there was no way he could be a regular cat.
The kitten:
He's beautiful!!! There was only one kitten found. I searched for hours for more. I couldn't put him back to wait for mom cause the dog knew where he was. They said that they waited all day for her return before picking him up and calling me. He has Spots on the belly and spots on the back-some fade into lines. All paws are grey and paw pads are dark grey. The claws have not retracted at all the past 2 days. The back of the ears do have white hair that is barley noticeable so far. I'm guessing he is about 9-12 days old. He doesn't have any teeth at all yet but keeps knawing on my fingers (teething I'm sure). He has to be stimulated to urinate and have a bm. His "meow" is super loud and he makes like a grunting noise in between the meows. He purrs really loud...it sounds like a car engine lol. I've researched newborn bobcats compared to bengals and tabbys that look like a bobcat. I just keep going back to him being a bob cat. His head is round and his ears kinda tilt towards his eyes. Eyes are a beautiful blue. His tail is right at 4 inches. It's fat where it's close to the body but gets really skinny at the end. I'm attaching several pictures of him. What do you think? Bob cat or regular tabby? Also,about what age do u think he is? I will be bringing him to the vet soon. If I can think of anything else that's different about him I'll update . Thank you for your time:-).

 
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Willowy

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I want to say it looks like a bobcat, but the nose doesn't seem quite right :dk:. It's hard to tell at this age, might be more obvious in a week or so. If it is a bobcat, contact a wildlife rehabber, because it might be illegal for you to have it.
 

parisinthe30sx

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Just going by that one picture, he looks like a bobcat to me. The coloring, especially by the ears and forehead, plus your description of the tail, and going by the pic his nose looks abit flat. I volunteer at a wildlife rehab and education center, I helped take care of many bobcat kittens , and I'd be surprised if he wasn't a bobcat. I could be wrong of course, but he sure looks like one. Very cute
 
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parisinthe30sx

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Also his ears look identical to a bobcat. Are they outlined in black, I couldn't really tell
They also have longer tufts of hair on the side of their faces, just like your kitty does.if his eyes turn a startling yellow, you have yourself a bobcat!
 
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StefanZ

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How is it going, any update?  More recent pics too?  

So it stands between regular tabby, or bobcat.  Some sort of mix isnt impossible either.  Not bengal of course.   Spotted tummy is common on tabbies, and even spotted tabbies not unheard of. A broken mackerel tabby is my guess on your description of the pattern. 
 
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