Tiger King star Carole Baskin is mourning the loss of one of her furry family members.
Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue announced Thursday that it had said goodbye to one of its bobcats, Tiger Lilly, who was “peacefully euthanized” just a few weeks before she would have turned 25 on April 30.
“It is with extremely heavy hearts that we announce that today we had to euthanize our beloved baby girl Tiger Lilly Bobcat,” the rescue center’s Instagram post began. “She would have been an ancient 25 years old on April 30. Tiger Lilly was merely two months old when she arrived at Big Cat Rescue in 1995.”
The organization said that Tiger Lilly had been “rescued from a fur farm in Minnesota along with 22 other exotic cats, which included bobcats and lynx.”
“They were born destined to be harvested for their beautifully-spotted belly fur. Tiger Lilly was the last living cat of the group she was rescued with,” the post continued.
The large feline “was never sick a day in her feisty, reclusive little life, until 2016 when she had some bad teeth taken care of,” according to Big Cat Rescue. “She had to be sedated in 2017 because she was so old and arthritic that she couldn’t groom herself any more.”
Unfortunately, X-rays revealed that Tiger Lilly had “a bone mass,” which “was most likely cancer.”
In the intervening decades, his disappearance has remained a mystery. But since the release of Tiger King, police are hoping for a break in the case.
Speaking with PEOPLE for this week’s Tiger King cover story, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said, “Once I saw how popular this Netflix documentary series has become, I’m like, ‘Listen, we need to take advantage of this,’” and added, “I just thought, Wouldn’t it be phenomenal if we could glimmer some type of evidence, an interview, anything that would help us solve this disappearance case?’”
Last week, Chronister asked on Twitter that anyone with any information about Lewis’ disappearance come forward.
“We’re getting about six tips a day,” he said. “So far, nothing viable. More theory-driven. But I’m going to be honest with you: I remain optimistic. Somebody’s going to watch this show and it’s going to prompt them to call us.”
Chronister said there are many unanswered questions, but one thing he’s certain about is that Lewis didn’t voluntarily disappear: He was murdered.
“I believe it was a homicide,” he said. “Now how and who’s responsible for it? That’s the unknown part right now. I wish I had more answers. I only hope, with the popularity of this Netflix series, that I’ll get those answers.”
Lewis’ family has long suspected that Baskin, who runs the nonprofit, had something to do with his disappearance. In Tiger King, Maldonado-Passage accused her of disposing of his body by feeding it to her big cats.
Baskin has long denied the rumors, and on her organization’s website slammed Tiger King as “salacious and sensational,” saying it “has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don in 1997.”
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