#Bigcat escape artist Rocky gets permanent home at zoo

Kathleen Hopkins, The Asbury Park (N.J.) 
December 19, 2014

Rocky the bobcat's owner, Ginny Fine, permanently surrendered the animal to Popcorn Park Zoo during a hearing at Stafford Municipal Court on Dec. 19, 2014. The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

(Photo: Tanya Breen, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press)

BEACH HAVEN WEST, N.J. — It's official! Rocky the hybrid bobcat, one the area's most elusive fugitives, will permanently reside at the Popcorn Park Zoo.
That was the outcome of a municipal court hearing Friday, at which the feline's owner, Ginny Fine, pleaded guilty to letting the animal run at large Oct. 21, marking one in a string of occurrences where Rocky escaped from her home in the Manahawkin section of the township in the course of the year.

Fine's attorney, Curtis Dowell, noted that when his client was last in court over the summer facing the same charge, she agreed to surrender Rocky if he ever escaped from her home again.
This time, Municipal Judge Damian Murray fined Fine $500, ordered her to pay $560 in restitution to the Popcorn Park Zoo for Rocky's room and board, and said she must relinquish ownership of Rocky to the zoo.

 

Ginny Fine, owner of Rocky the bobcat, waits for her hearing Dec. 19, 2014, before Stafford Municipal Judge Damian G. Murray on charges she allowed the big cat to run loose in October.(Photo: Tonya Breen, The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press)

 

The bobcat hybrid has been at the zoo, run by the Associated Humane Societies, since his most recent escape from Fine's house almost two months ago. "Rocky is going to be a permanent resident of the Popcorn Zoo,'' Murray said, as Fine brushed away tears.

Rocky was suspected of being a purebred bobcat during his last escape but a DNA test in May revealed the feline's mother to be pure bobcat but was inconclusive on Rocky's father. If the DNA test had revealed that Rocky was pure bobcat — males can weigh as much as 40 pounds while male Maine coon cats can tip the scales at more like 25 pounds — Fine would not have been allowed to have him back.

In previous court proceedings, Murray said Rocky has gotten free at least six times in the past.

 

"This should be an end to the tortured history of this case,'' Murray said. "Some things are not meant to be. Rocky living in your household is one of them.''

source