Rare Ringtail Cat Rescued After Hiding Out in Colorado Kohl's Shoe Department for Three Weeks
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
A department store in Colorado had an unexpected resident hiding in its shoe department for over three weeks before the rare mammal was caught and released into the wild.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in Golden, Colorado, tweeted Monday that a ringtail cat, "a rare sight to see," had been "carefully collected and released into the nearby woods."
The animal is not actually a cat, the tweet continued, but a mammal in the raccoon family. The small, nocturnal creature was hiding in the shoe department of a local Kohl's store, evading capture, for at least three weeks, the social media post added.
According to the sheriff's office, the "clever little guy" survived off the food it snuck out of humane traps set to capture it and on ceiling tiles and shoe boxes while stuck inside the store. Rescuers eventually managed to secure the wild animal in a trap.
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office shared a video across its social media platforms of the ringtail cat outside of the Kohl's being released from a cage into the wild. In the clip, the individual looking after the ringtail cat during the release jokes the animal was inside the Kohl's looking for a pair of Skechers.
"We brought him here to beautiful Jefferson County, and we're gonna release him and let him go on his way," the rescuer adds in the video.
It's a raccoon…it's a cat... it's a catcoon?!
No, it's a ringtail cat! This little guy was hiding out in the shoe depart in a Kohls store for 3 weeks. Eating ceiling tiles & shoe boxes, he would sneak in and out of our cat traps to get the food w/o tripping the mechanism
1/2 pic.twitter.com/xcSGjTJpbA— Jeffco Sheriff (@jeffcosheriffco) January 9, 2023
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While the ringtail cat might look cute, the sheriff's office warned animal lovers to stay away from these creatures in the wild. According to the office's social media post, the "cute and fuzzy" critters "are still wild and can act aggressively." In the case of a sighting, which the post made clear is quite rare, people should keep their distance from ringtail cats.
Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
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The species gets its name from its "12-17 inch ring-patterned tail," which it uses both for balance when climbing — and as a "defensive tactic to encourage a predator to attack its tail rather than its body."
