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Chuck Bunnell and Mocha, the big cat

by Prufer

Chuck Bunnell has the perfect pet – a lovely cat named Mocha who is 19 years and four months old, a cat who eats raw chicken hindquarters and weighs 100 to 125 pounds. Mocha is a very big cat — a cougar, a mountain lion, a Florida panther (all names for the smallest of large wildcats that purr).

“We ‘rescued’ Mocha when she was just 8 weeks old,” says Bunnell, who is a programmer in Coastal Carolina University’s Department of Information Technology Systems. “A young guy had purchased her from a zoo at 6 weeks old, and for two weeks had been feeding her soft cat food from a can (which could have killed her). Shortly thereafter, he decided he didn’t want her, so I gave him the $500 he had paid for her and took her home. I was in the right place at the right time. My wife, Karen, thought I was crazy!”

Bunnell contacted Mahamayavi Bhagavan “Doc” Antle at the T.I.G.E.R.S. endangered wildlife preserve in Myrtle Beach and explained his situation. “He immediately sent over some of his staff to help,” says Bunnell. “After a couple of months of feeding her the proper foods, Mocha was looking healthy and strong and growing quickly.

“We took Mocha to Doc Antle’s T.I.G.E.R.S. compound multiple times, and we learned how to train a puma,” says Bunnell. “Doc told us what to expect in the future and made it clear that this was a lifelong commitment, not something you get tired of in a couple of years and just quit. He made this point well!”

On Jan. 1, 2018, it officially become illegal to own exotic wildlife in South Carolina, but Mocha and Bunnell are grandfathered in.

Though the Bunnells originally planned to find the cat a home with Antle or a nearby zoo, they found that to be impossible because cougars were not needed at that time, and since zoos are federally regulated they can’t just take in animals. And, after six months, they had fallen in love with her anyway.

For the first year and a half or so, the puma lived in the Bunnells’ home in Socastee and would jump to the top of the refrigerator, open the bedroom door (her own room, no cage involved) with her big paw, and play with cantaloupes from the grocery store.

She eats two or three chicken leg quarters five days a week and fasts the other two days. Bunnell says that wildcats don’t eat daily, but only when they score their prey. They have short digestive systems and don’t need a lot of food to keep them going. Mocha’s diet is augmented with vitamins with nutrients made specifically for big cats.

“I would not trade Mocha or the experience of being accepted by her for anything,” says Bunnell. “My wife, on the other hand, feels a little differently.

“For the first two years, Mocha and Karen got along great. Mocha would sleep on her lap and love all over her. However, over time Mocha grew to be more protective of me and started snarling at Karen. Since then, Karen does not get near Mocha without a fence between them. She does feed Mocha occasionally, but she can do this without any close contact.”

After a slapping incident (fortunately, no claws were used), the couple decided Mocha needed her own separate quarters and outdoor space, so Bunnell built what he calls a “cougar compound.”

Now Mocha lives in a 1,200-square-foot lodging that includes an air-conditioned/heated building, an outdoor area with a concrete floor and 12-foot high steel roof, and an outdoor chain-link pen with plants, grass and a tunnel for Mocha to run through or lay on. Bunnell owns the land where Mocha lives and leases most of it to a couple other businesses. He used to have a web design business office there, but has since moved it to Murrells Inlet. The cougar compound is about four miles from the Bunnells' home in Socastee.

Mocha turned 19 on Aug. 12, 2017, which is very old for a cougar. In the wild, the cats only live to be eight or nine years. “She is still doing great, though much shower and lazier than when she was 12 years old,” says Bunnell, who loves to nuzzle and kiss her and accept her puma kisses. Mocha is arthritic and has the beginnings of bone cancer in a front leg, so she has difficulty getting around. Bunnell knows the time is drawing near when he will have to say goodbye to her.

“She is still very affectionate to me, and still hisses and snarls at Karen,” he says. Rocco, Karen’s shih tzu, is not a favorite of the cougar, who also shows her teeth at him.

“I am honored every day that I get to see that beautiful puma face and hear her purr,” says Bunnell, though it is hard to hear him over the cat’s loud purr as he rubs her immense head.

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