Linda Anderson was taking her grandkids to school when she saw an animal on the shoulder of Iowa Highway 7, she recalled.

“I said, look there’s a dead raccoon,” Anderson said.

After dropping off her grandkids in Barnum, Anderson went back to Manson for gas before calling her daughter.

After talking with her daughter, she realized maybe the animal wasn’t a raccoon. So she decided to go back.

“I almost just went home,” she said.

When she arrived the second time, she recognized the animal as a bobcat.

“There was a little blood, but he was moving, he was breathing,” Anderson said. “As I got out of the pickup, he turned his head at me. I thought he was playing possum, but he never moved after that.”

That’s when she called Dr. Steve Leppert, a veterinarian in Manson, to the scene at 8:30 a.m.

Upon arrival, Leppert saw the male bobcat lying on its side.

“I had never seen a bobcat before,” Leppert said. “So it was really rare. I have heard people talking about them being around, but this was my first involvement with one.”

The animal appeared to have been hit by a vehicle, according to Leppert.

“We cautiously approached it,” Leppert said. “We didn’t want to cause anymore suffering than he had already been through, but we also wanted to be careful not to get injured ourselves by picking up the bobcat.”

Leppert administered a mild sedative by injection to the animal.

The bobcat, estimated to be about 20 pounds, was then transported to Leppert’s office, Manson Veterinary Clinic, 2894 190th St.

There, the bobcat was stabilized.

Leppert contacted Calhoun County Public Health.

The bobcat was transported to a wildlife rehabilitation center, the Orphaned and Injured Wildlife Inc., in Lake Park, in Dickinson County.

Leppert later received notification that the animal had both of its back legs broken.

The goal is for the bobcat to be released back into its natural habitat.

“If he heals well enough to be released back to the wild, he will be released,” Leppert said. “Their primary goal is to get these animals back into the wild. They don’t want to keep them captive.”