When somebody calls you and tells you that there is a leopard in their laundry room, you can be excused for thinking that they’re a little confused.

That’s exactly what Dr Cliff Bull from the Craig View Veterinary Clinic thought when responding to a call to head to a Marister house, near Benoni, yesterday morning.

Bull figured that he would more than likely find a genet, after reports that an animal was harassing a worker and a dog, before he received an update that the animal was now trapped in the laundry room.

Over to News24 below:

“Apparently the maid had walked into the washroom and seen the leopard, so she ran out and closed the door,” Bull said…

With the young leopard trapped in a confined space, it would be virtually impossible to access the washroom without being attacked.

“It’s not your normal domestic house cat that you can use a catching stick or a net,” Bull explained.

“What a lot of people don’t realise about most cats when you dart them, they’re explosive and they react. So, the minute that dart hits the leopard it’s gonna come 100% for you,” he told News24.

As the leopard hid behind the washing machine, a plan was hatched.

Bull asked someone to provoke the leopard into jumping up, at which point he shot the leopard with a sedative in the right shoulder.

It took a while for the animal to go down, with Bull using a feather duster to test how sedated the leopard was. When he was confident that the good stuff had kicked in, he grabbed the leopard and handed it over to the South African Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (SAWRC) staff present.

You can see the moment he grabs the leopard in this video:

Fine work.

And now for the obvious question – what the hell a leopard is doing that close to Benoni?

Although he said it’s not unheard of for wildlife to be seen in Benoni, it is definitely unusual as it’s a built-up area.

But he said he has a suspicion that this particular cat escaped from an enclosure.

“It definitely wasn’t as aggressive as other leopards that I’ve worked with, so I do have personal opinion that it was caged,” he told News24.

Bull said the other possibility is that something happened to the young animal’s mother, or it went astray.

Judy Davidson of SAWRC says the leopard cub is between five and six months old. It has now been moved to a conservancy outside Bronkhorstspruit.

After a month or two of supervision, it may be released, although Davidson also believes it may have been held in an enclosure somewhere.

The SAWRC Facebook page also has a great video documenting the capture, which you can watch here.

[source:news24]