No, you weren’t seeing things. That wasn’t someone’s fat cat with sweet hair. That was an exotic feline roaming around the northwest suburb of Chicago in recent days.
Police say the endangered cat is roaming the area and that citizens should not approach it or attempt to feed it. Caracals are native to Africa and the Middle East, not Illinois. Male Caracals typically weigh twenty to forty pounds.
It is believed that it is/was someone’s pet, but even domesticated cats can have predatorial tendencies.
Earlier this year the Illinois House of Reps passed a bill (4446) that would make it illegal to own Caracals (and also Servals, Wallabies, and Kangaroos) in the state. The bill has not been passed by the state senate or signed by the Governor. Other states do allow Caracal ownership…