Canadian lynx arrives with 3-month-old cougar at Cat Tales Zoological Park

Kachina, a 3-month-old cougar cub, sprang repeatedly into the air, tackling everything in sight. She didn’t care if it was a stuffed toy or the arms and legs of her keepers at Cat Tales Zoological Park.

“She’s got soft paws, but we discourage it because when she’s full grown at 100 pounds, it won’t feel so good,” Lisa Wyche said.

During a recent play session, a crowd gathered to watch as the cub frolicked in an enclosure, getting plenty of exercise and practicing her hunting skills by repeatedly wrestling with a stuffed tiger larger than she is. Kachina seemed to enjoy the attention, occasionally breaking off her play to approach the fence and examine the visitors.

Cat Tales was founded in 1991 by Mike and Debbie Wyche. Both had experience working with big cats when they lived in California. They started by getting licensed to take in a rescued cougar cub. “Back in the 90s there were still a lot of people with big cats in their backyards,” said Debbie Wyche.

Many of the animals Cat Tales has taken in have been rescues. Some are retired film stars. The facility also has two black bears. The arrival of the first bear cub, Oscar, in 2003 was not planned, Debbie Wyche said.

“Fish and Wildlife showed up with a crate in the back of their truck,” she said.

Cat Tales is licensed as an animal rehabilitation facility, and they were asked if they could care for the bear cub. A second followed in 2005. “The bears were orphaned wild and couldn’t be re-released,” she said.

Cat Tales is a frequent destination of school field trips. The facility has also operated a zookeeper training school for 21 years, training almost 300 students. There are now 30 animals living on site, several of them now elderly.

Debbie Wyche said they recently decided they wanted to focus on wildlife education and are working to create an exhibit of animals native to the Northwest. The first animal, a wolf hybrid named Akeylah, arrived in May after living her life chained to a tree in Stevens County. She looks and acts like a wolf, but DNA tests show that she is only 10 percent wolf, Debbie Wyche said.

“She thinks she’s a wolf,” she said. “That pretty much started the canines.”

The facility has since received several coyotes, a red fox and a bobcat. Kachina just arrived from a facility in Montana, accompanied by a Canadian lynx cub named Sibella. Sibella spends much of her time in an enclosure in the facility’s gift shop, where she has plenty of opportunities to play, climb and jump with her large paws.

“In the wild it would help them snowshoe on the snow,” said Lisa Wyche of the cub’s large paws.

The lynx cub is a parkour expert, climbing the walls and jumping from object to object as she romps through her enclosure. “She also gets going quite a bit when she thinks no one is watching,” said Lisa Wyche.

Sibella loves to chase feathers attached to the end of a stick that her keepers use to get her active and keep her entertained. “We’re constantly trying to interact with her,” Lisa Wyche said. “When there’s people out here, especially kids, she really likes that.”

Most of the new additions came from the same facility in Montana, the Triple D Game Farm, which provides animals for wildlife photography and documentaries. One of the employees there used to work at Cat Tales and called when there were cubs available. “She knew we were trying to push for a native species exhibit,” Lisa Wyche said.

The exhibit for the Northwest animals is currently being constructed near the gift shop, and it will have a play yard the animals will take turns using. Lisa Wyche said she hopes it will be completed by the end of the year. The North American animals can appeal more to people than the exotic tigers and lions that live at the facility, Lisa Wyche said.

“It’s amazing that people connect really well to the animals native to our backyard,” she said.

People can check out the new additions during a special Boo at the Zoo event on Oct. 27 and 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be pumpkin carving all day Oct. 27 and there will be a pumpkin feeding time at 2 p.m. Oct. 28. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students and $5 for children age 3-12. Admission for 12 and under is free during the Boo at the Zoo event.

Winter hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Cat Tales is located at 17020 N. Newport Highway.