From Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay’s Facebook page:

When I heard about a man in a mental health crisis looking for a bobcat in downtown skywalks and in the convention center I knew it wasn’t true. Then I saw these pictures. You can’t make this stuff up … nobody knows how this wild animal made it into the convention center. It was trapped by the DNR and Wildwoods inside the convention center.

From the Wildwoods Facebook page:

A kind homeless man saw a half-grown bobkitten out on her own in the Canal Park area, and followed her, trying his best to catch her. A mile later, he’d pursued her all the way to the DECC. He was worried about her being cold, so let her in. She took refuge in a room measuring about 50 feet by 15 feet, crouching frightened in a corner.

That’s when the DNR got a call, and then I did, too!

We dispatched our two biggest live traps out to the DECC, along with food for baiting them.
Rather than wait for her to step into a trap for food, several helpful folks worked together to herd the half-grown bobcat into a live trap (a big one; more than big enough for a full grown bobcat). Then she came to Wildwoods.

The circumstances of her story were a bit strange and she looked pretty small, so we thought we’d better get her checked out by a vet. Also, friends who have mama bobcats on their property are still seeing the mama and kittens together, so we wondered … Where was this one’s mother? Was she old enough to be on her own? Had she been someone’s ill-advised “pet”?

So off to the vet we went.