ATLANTA (AP) - Authorities in the Atlanta area searched Saturday for an exotic wild cat on the loose.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said it is looking for a serval, which is a large cat native to Africa, that apparently went into a woman's house and jumped on her bed while she was sleeping, WSB-TV reported.
DNR officials believe the cat is in the area of the Capital City Country Club, between Buckhead and Brookhaven.
Fulton County Animal Services got a call from a woman Wednesday night saying the animal was in her bedroom. She was not injured, but her husband was able to snap a photo of the cat as it ran away.
DNR said it received two other calls about sightings of the cat, which was last seen near the country club's golf course. The department said game wardens placed a trap Thursday in one of the yards where the animal was seen.
Once captured, the Animal Legal Defense Fund has offered to place the serval in an animal sanctuary in North Carolina. It's illegal to have servals, which are often mistaken as cheetahs or leopards, as pets in Georgia.