Man's beloved pet lynx dies at age 22

This Christmas won’t be quite the same for Kevin Moore.

The Flathead Valley resident has for the last two decades sent out Christmas cards prominently featuring his pet lynx, Misha, who died last month at the age of 22.

She had struggled with brain and sinus cancer during the past two years, undergoing chemotherapy at Washington State University in 2014, which Moore credited with buying him extra time with his beloved feline.

During the past year, he said their bond strengthened even further as he recovered alongside her following a rollover in his truck the week before last Christmas. He suffered a concussion and a pituitary gland injury and said the trauma left him with symptoms similar to those of Misha.

“I think we really helped each other, because we were both going through the same thing,” he said.

After she was discharged from the university hospital last year, Misha also became a source of comfort to others struggling with the disease, Moore said.

“I had a lot of cancer patients that called. I think they wanted some affirmation that they could survive as well.”

Ultimately, Misha’s seizures became more frequent, and Moore said that finally one day, she began having them almost constantly, with relief coming only a few minutes at a time.

After two trips to All Creatures Veterinary Clinic in Kalispell and an over-the-phone consultation with her doctor in Washington, she was put down on Oct 29.

“The doctor thought Misha hung on just long enough to make sure my health was not an issue,” he said, recounting his last doctor’s visit. “She was taking care of me as much as I was taking care of her, I think.”

For a lynx, 22 years is a long life. Their typical lifespan in the wild is closer to half of that, which is no surprise given the luxurious trappings Moore provided for Misha.

“She ate better than I did,” he joked — adding that he would feed her venison, rabbit, turkey and special, vitamin-enriched dry cat food. Knowing her taste for wild game, Misha’s fans routinely gave him the venison left in their freezers at the end of the year.

Her main domicile was a 20-by-40-foot outdoor pen, complete with climbing structures, a massive litter box, misting fans in the summer and heating pads in the winter. Then there was her “exercise yard,” a 100-by-50-foot enclosure that featured a water fountain.

She was the star attraction at his house. When business associates from the city would visit Moore from out of town, Misha was the first thing they wanted to see.

“Whether we were talking politics or energy [Moore is the president of Big Sky Mineral Resources], it kind of brought out the human side of everybody,” he said. “Everyone loves animals.”

Moore is also a professional martial arts trainer who has worked with law enforcement agencies and opened several Ultimate Submission Academies throughout Montana.

His focus on jiujitsu — much of which centers on the ability to fight while on one’s back — provided another strong link between the two.

“To submit an opponent or defend yourself against your opponent, jiujitsu had some pretty cool stuff,” he said. “Well, that’s exactly the way a cat fights. They get on their back and use their back legs to disembowel.”

And as a sparring partner, she was formidable in her own right.

“She would always turn to face you — that’s what you do in jiujitsu. If I kind of started to pass, the claws would come out. You weren’t passing her guard.”

Misha permeated Moore’s many-faceted life. He is heavily involved with the Glacier Gala as an art consultant and dealer, and would commission a local artist each year to produce a piece of Misha-based art.

He said that this year he still plans to have Kalispell-based artist Tom Sander create a piece this year.

As he describes the difficulty inherent in portraying a lynx, Moore’s keen admiration for his late pet is unmistakable.

“Not many people can capture big cats. It’s difficult to portray that stealth, that strength and musculature,” he said. “And really, a lynx, three-dimensionally, is the most difficult of the big cats to portray ... [with] the chinstraps, the tufted ears, long legs, dished face and thick coats.”

As for his annual Christmas tradition, Moore isn’t sure what he’s going to do this year. When he started making the cards, he would send about 100 out to friends and family each year, but the volume of holiday correspondence ballooned after Misha was featured in the Daily Inter Lake in the last two years. Last year he dispatched more than 1,000 of them.

He isn’t ruling out getting another lynx, but said he wants to spend some time traveling first. As Misha’s health declined, he became less comfortable leaving her at home for more than a couple of  days at a time.

Moore still enjoys the company of his house cat and his bird dog, Tucker, but both for them and for Misha’s legion of local fans, Christmas will likely feel a bit bluer this year.

“We’d be coming up on her favorite time of year,” Moore said. “As soon as we’d start getting snow — she just loved playing in the snow.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.