Woman Awakes to Exotic Wild Cat in Her Bed, Large Serval Still Prowling Atlanta Area
A woman in Atlanta, Georgia, woke up in fear on Wednesday morning after an exotic African cat snuck into her house and jumped on top of her bed.
Kristine Frank, who lives in the Brookhaven neighborhood of Atlanta, told news outlets that the cat entered her house after her husband left a door open to take their dog outside.
"I'm laying in bed and I hear a thump on my bed," Frank said, according to WTHR News. She opened her eyes to find a serval, a large spotted wild cat native to sub-Saharan Africa, just 6 inches from her face. "It was big. It was scary."
Frank said she screamed and was able to quickly get the cat off of her bed. The animal then cowered in the corner, while Frank slowly backed out of the room and called her husband to help.
"I said, 'That's not a normal house cat. I don't know what that is, but I am terrified right now,'" she recalled thinking, according to CNN. Frank's husband was then able to open a bedroom door that leads outdoors, allowing the cat to safely leave the house as he took a picture of it.
After the incident, Frank recalled thinking the animal, which was roughly two-and a-half feet tall, could have been a bobcat or a baby leopard. She immediately called animal control, which told her to contact the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). As of Saturday, authorities with the DNR were still searching for the prowling cat.
Lt. Wayne Hubbard of the DNR told news outlets that the African serval is likely someone's pet, though owning a wild cat is illegal in the state of Georgia.
"They're very popular in the pet trade," Hubbard said, according to WTHR.
The DNR said authorities were setting up traps in the nearby area and once the cat is captured, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) plans to place it into an animal sanctuary. ALDF Senior Legislative Affairs Manager Alicia Prygoski told CNN that the loose serval reflects why wild cats should not be legally owned as pets.
"Wild cats are not meant for private possession," Prygoski said. "The wild cat trade in this country is really not well regulated, which results in many species of wild cats, including servals, living out their lives in private homes which are not adequate environments for the natural behaviors that they exhibit."
"When law enforcement is hopefully able to trap her we hope that she is then set to an accredited sanctuary where she can live out the rest of her life in an appropriate habitat," Prygoski added.
Prygoski said that anyone who sees the serval should stay away from the cat and contact animal control or the DNR. Meanwhile, Frank expressed concern that the wildcat could re-enter the house or cause danger for other members of the community.
"It still kind of terrifies me because that cat is illegal and there's a reason it's illegal. So I really don't know what it's capable of doing," Frank told CNN.
Newsweek contacted the DNR for additional comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
