Last week Billy (our favorite livestock and ranch guardian) found what appeared to be a dirty, and somewhat slobbery animal that looked a bit like a baby lion.
Knowing that the scared little baby lion didn't belong to us, we immediately took a photo to send to nearby neighbors.
As you can see it is quite cute and somewhat scared. Billy did a wonderful job rescuing it from certain death on the mountain.
We were immediately contacted by our closest neighbor stating that the lion was theirs, and she is not a lion, but a rare and precious snow leopard!
Knowing I was responsible for this beautiful and rare animal until the neighbors could recover her, I set about making her comfortable on the ranch.
First she got a bath. By her expression you can see that she was a little startled by the turn of events, and wasn't keen on the shampoo choices I had available - having never bathed a precious snow leopard before, I was not properly stocked.
After the bath we made sure to snuggle the snow leopard tightly in a towel so that she did not get a chill.
The snow leopard was understandably exhausted after this trying day, and snuggled up with Billy for a nap.
Realizing the snow leopard was ill-equipped to live in this hot desert environment, we tried to provide her with a cozy bag of ice cubes until her owners arrived.
She was extremely impressed by our efforts to make her feel at home in a strange place.
Billy decided that she really wanted to keep the snow leopard, but understood that she did not belong to us, and happily returned her to Eleanor, who was extremely happy to have her back!
Eleanor thanked Billy profusely for her tender care and rewarded her with a couple of brand new toys which Billy immediately took off with and hid somewhere for safe keeping.
We want to thank Billy who was able through her diligence and hard work to return a lost and lonely snow leopard to her rightful owner.
If we take this kind of care of a stuffed animal, imagine how much care we put into training your dogs! We want every animal, dog and snow leopard alike, to live their best lives!