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How could anyone abandon such a sweet face?

Rescuers in Kettle Falls, Washington, asked themselves the same question after this baby mountain lion was found “orphaned, abandoned and malnourished” on the front porch of a home the week of Aug. 17.

The startled homeowner promptly called authorities to report the misplaced cub.


“It just showed up on a front porch, which is really odd,” Madonna Leurs, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s public information officer, told ABC News.

When state Fish and Wildlife officers arrived, they immediately began searching for the baby’s mother to no avail.

“We looked all over for mama cougar and couldn’t find any signs of her,” said Leurs. “There was absolutely no sings of the mother, and with a kitten that young, she’d be looking for it if it was around.”

The rescuers took the abandoned cub to a wildlife center at Mt.Spokane Veterinary Hospital to help the animal regain his strength.

“A kitten that young would never make it on its own,” Leurs explained. “It we had just thrown it back out into the woods, it would be preyed upon.”

Luckily for the sweet, little cub however, he is now happy and healthy-- and has already found a new forever home 2,500 miles away at ZooAmerica, an AZA accredited zoo, in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

“He is just beautiful and the zoo staff is over the moon for him,” said Kathy Burrows, ZooAmerica’s public relations manager. “Everybody is so thrilled to have him. We were very much hoping to get a mountain lion and this one came about which was just remarkable.”

The baby boy has not been named yet, but coming up with a moniker for the ferociously adorable cub is high on the zoo’s to-do list.

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