One of the world’s rarest cats (the Scottish Wildcat) was found by a walker and his son “freezing and “at death’s door” after a deluge of snow on Wednesday.

Scottish chef, Pete Macnab was out walking in the snow with his friend, Piotr Peretko and three-month-old son when he made the “once in a lifetime find”.

The walkers first thought the tabby kitten was a domestic cat, but after taking it to a vet, they discovered it was indeed a rare Scottish Wildcat.

Talking about his find on social media Pete Macnab said:

We saw a circle of sheep and found it a bit strange. As we were getting closer we found a tiny cat. It was in a really bad way – it was freezing, not really moving and at death’s door. My pal carried it all the way back and we took it to the vets.

They were going to try and give it a lot of hot water and a glucose injection. Piotr phoned them back at around 6 pm to say he’d come and take it home to look after it until the owners were found. They said no chance can we give it back, its actually a Scottish Wildcat.

The baby Wildcat has been named Huntleigh to mark where she was found at Huntly’s Cave, north of Grantown in Moray. She’s now being looked after and kept warm by Scottish Wildcat charity, Scottish Wildcat Action.

On its website, the charity estimates that there are only 100-300 Scottish wildcats left in the wild (Kilshaw, 2014). Scottish wildcats remaining in the wild making it the world’s most endangered feline.

To view more of our interesting, funny and local articles – click here.