On their Friday morning walk in Reservoir Hill, Zach Cusson and his dog, Freddie, noticed something dart toward them.

“I see, all of a sudden, at my feet, what looked like leopard spots,” Cusson said. He whipped out his phone to record the scene and wondered where this wild animal could have come from. The Maryland Zoo is nearby.

The creatures — there were two roaming — turned out to be what are known in pop culture as “lap leopards.” And these two African servals have been the treasured pets of a disabled former professional football player who lives nearby. They’re named Tazz and Meek.

In the years since he hung up his cleats, Brandon Haw suffered memory loss and personality changes, he said in court records. Neurological impairment consistent with the brain disease known as CTE has left him unable to hold a job.

“Mr. Haw has owned two sibling African serval cats for several years and cares deeply about them,” Gregg Bernstein, his attorney in a lawsuit against the NCAA, said in a statement. “He has treated the cats well and they have provided great comfort to him as he struggles with his disability.”

With a tawny, spotted coat, a serval resembles a small leopard.

The cats can reach 2-feet-tall at the shoulder and weigh 40 pounds. They are famous for an ability to jump 10 feet or higher from a sitting position and pluck birds from the air.

Servals are native to the savannahs and grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, but they have been popularized by TikTok videos and celebrities such as Justin Bieber as an exotic and exclusive house pet.

The animal darting over to Cusson and his rescue mix dog during Friday’s light snowfall sure didn’t resemble a cuddly house cat. Not with its darkly hooded eyes, tall ears and bounding gait. It approached unafraid, on tall, slender legs, seemingly intent on Freddie.

“I don’t know what this thing’s claws were looking like,” Cusson said. “I didn’t want to take any chances.”

Instinct took over, and he tried to get big and loud. The cat scampered off.

“I challenge anyone what they would do if they had a wild African cat coming at them on a city street,” Cusson said.

It’s unclear how the cats got loose; Haw declined an interview, and Bernstein provided only a brief statement.

Animal control officers captured one of the servals without incident that day, and as of late Tuesday it was being held in quarantine and out of sight at the Maryland Zoo.

Haw voluntarily moved the second cat to an animal sanctuary in Alabama, Bernstein said.

Maryland law bans selling, breeding or keeping wildcats such as servals as pets. State law also bans keeping hybrids — servals bred with domestic cats — as pets that weigh more than 30 pounds.

Upon learning that he was in violation, Bernstein said, Haw began working with authorities to see that the brothers are reunited in Alabama.

This situation is under investigation by animal control.

A star high school football player from Prince George’s County, Haw was a three-year starter at cornerback for Rutgers University and he signed a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2004. He went on to play in the NFL Europe league before he settled in Baltimore in 2007.

In a lawsuit against the NCAA, Haw disclosed that he suffers the neurological impairment consistent with the progressive brain disease known as CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The disease has been linked to repeated hits to the head and concussions.

His lawsuit accuses the NCAA of failing to take reasonable measures to protect players. He also accuses the NCAA of hiding medical research about the risk of brain disease caused by hits to the head.

The case is scheduled for trial next year in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, videos spread widely online of Haw’s serval scampering through West Baltimore and stopping traffic.

The story of escaped servals in Baltimore was all too familiar to Tammy Thies at The Wildcat Sanctuary in Minnesota.

“I just got a video of another loose serval in California. This is crazy,” she said. “We refer to this as the ‘small cat crisis.’”

Federal law prohibits the ownership of big cats such as tigers and lions as pets, but the rules are looser and differ state to state for the small wildcats such as servals, bobcats and lynxes.

There’s a lot of money at stake for breeders. Prized serval hybrids can fetch tens of thousands of dollars, and Bieber spent $35,000 for his pair, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In Minnesota, Thies cares for 16 servals at the wildcat retirement home she founded for unwanted pets and aged animal actors. She’s hearing every week about new cases of runaway servals. These cats are nomadic in the wild and inclined to roam.

“Social media has really fueled the breeding, buying and selling,” she said, “and makes this look trendy, exotic.”

Inevitably, reality sets in for owners. Wildcats communicate by clawing and spraying — destroying furniture and carpets. These cats can’t live healthy off tins of Fancy Feast, but require raw meat, bones and organs.

“Most people understand a tiger shouldn’t be a pet, but then they take a 30- or 40-pound wildcat and think, why not?” Thies said. “Try and bring a squirrel into your house. Try and domesticate that.”