AdvoCat 2006 05

Greetings

Welcome to spring and one of the most beautiful months Florida has to offer. Now’s the time to come visit or plan ahead for your summer guests to tour. We have alot of information to convey this month that we hope will serve to keep you in touch with us and the cats.

Carole Baskin, Founder

	Mothers’ Day

Mother’s Day is a great day to honor those who’ve given so much of their lives to nurture our own. However, not much can speak to the immense power of a mom’s nurturing, like witnessing cubs without their mother. As we’ve reported to you before, we have the great responsibility of raising 3 adolescent cougar cubs due to the sad lack of judgment and carelessness of a hunter. However, we are determined to give them the best quality of life we can. Our biggest need for them at present is to build a larger enclosure to keep them together and give them the space to thrive. It will be our largest enclosure to date. You can honor mothers and make a statement this mother’s day by helping us reach that goal. Each donation will be recognized either on the website and/or signage with your name by the enclosure.

What’s more, The Chrysler Championship golf tournament which has a wonderful program to assist local charities, including Big Cat Rescue. For a limited time, any donation made with their form filled out will be matched with an additional 20%. So, if you donate $100, the sanctuary receives another $20 from the tournament for a total donation of $120. This is a great way for you to leverage your donation to have more impact for the cats. Plus, you could win $1000 to Sweet Bay Supermarket. Enter at the link.

Read all the details ..

	Extinction if Forever

Take time to view one of the most thought-provoking slideshows we have to offer. You’ll discover if you still have a pulse for the possibility of the creatures you love disappearing one by one, due to our injustice, inhumanity and lack of good stewardship.

Read More Here …

	Kids 4 Cats

We’d like to introduce you to a new feature section that we will bring to you occasionally. We’re proud to report that the compassion and drive to save the big cats is alive and well and really vibrant in the hearts of our younger generation. We have two supporters we’d like you to know about. They’ve inspired us by their generous spirits.

Dana Clements, a 3rd grade teacher at Westchase Elementary, asked Beth, one of our Educational Directors to come to the school to speak. After watching our DVD she set up a field trip. She then created a fundraiser with Mrs. West’s AGP (gifted) classes. They sold icey freeze pops. They made over $400.00. The students each made a poster to be displayed around the school. A group of students were responsible for one color freeze pop. They had to tally each pop sold to determine the most popular color sold. The blue one was the winner! They earned $.21 each. Way to go kids, and thank you teachers!

Sara Varsames, a student at Berkeley Preparatory School decided that in lieu of birthday presents, she would collect donations for Big Cat Rescue. She visited our sanctuary with her class and loved it. She told us “I wanted to try and help the big cats who were abused or mistreated.” She spread the word by putting her request on her invitations to take donations instead of gifts. She raised $500. Her supportive dad also contributed ($250) to help her raise the total $775 total. Thank you for your generous gift. Good job Sara! The cats thank you.

See more photos…

	GoodSearch is Great

Due to the research of a supporter, Shan Lloyd-Packer, we’ve been introduced to Goodsearch and a great way to earn funds for Big Cat Rescue. Every time you want to search for something, you can also help out a charitable organization. Log on to this site, put “Big Cat” into the charity choice box, click on verify, and then search. If 2,000 people with the same charity search just once a day for a year, that charity earns $7,300.00. Can you imagine if we all utilize it all the time?

	You’re invited!

One year ago, thousands of pets were victims of Hurricane Katrina. Big Cat Rescue is hosting a party to urge Congress to protect our beloved pets during disasters.  We hope to see you there on June 11th at 7:30 PM. This is a party to raise funds for better laws so you can help by bringing a dish to share, or non alcoholic drinks. This way, your $25.00 entry fee and all of your donations will go to that purpose and not to the cost of throwing a party. This is an opportunity to meet others who care about animals in a beautiful setting amid the roars of 142 lions, tigers and more. Come join us!

RSVP for party…

	Tijuana Cats

Many times you’ll see a local eatery feature a famous face such as Hulk Hogan or John Travolta who live in the area, but who would think our cats would grace restaurant walls…or a ceiling?

When you visit Tijuana Flats Restaurant on N. Dale Mabry, make sure you look up on the ceiling. You’ll see that they have individualized ceiling tiles as their “theme.” They recently expanded their restaurant and were looking for more tiles to be painted. One of our volunteers, Julie, who was laid up with a broken leg was invited to paint a tile. Not only did it keep her spirits up, but it’s also benefiting us with lots of fun exposure. So, grab a friend and go enjoy some yummy Mexican food, and while you’re there, look up at the ceiling and be reminded to support the cats! Thanks to our own resident artist Julie, and thanks Tijuana Flats!

	Spay and Play

From just allowing one litter of four, you are responsible for a minimum of 52 more cats in just 14 months! It’s a fact that none of us want to hear about or discuss, but it’s the truth and we can not change that which we do not know or which we hide from. We are all typically familiar with the fact that many domestic dogs and cats lose their lives at animal shelters due to overpopulation, but did you know that many times, the big cats and small exotic cats also meet their fate the same way? This happens when unaccredited “sanctuaries” or backyard menageries go under, when the cats escape or the owner’s die.

In an ongoing effort to promote responsibility and to stop suffering, Big Cat Rescue is pleased to present our Spay and Play program.  Bring us an original receipt, from your vet, showing that you spayed or neutered a pet, or a receipt from an animal shelter showing that you adopted a spayed or neutered pet, within the past year,  and get a FREE PASS for our day tour.  That is a $20.00 value!

Be a part of the solution,….

	3 Years of Financial Contrast

We like to keep open books to our supporters and from time to time, we believe you would like to know how we are doing and where your money is going. Big Cat Rescue has been a 501(c)(3) non profit entity since 1995.  The two primary sources of revenue to support the cats and the educational activities are the revenue from the educational tours and donations from caring individuals, corporations and foundations. A major financial goal is the accumulating of reserves to negate weather and downturns in the economy, and eventually building an endowment, which will be critical to the long term survival of the sanctuary.

Below at the link is a summary of the audited statements. The links below the summary lead to PDF files of the complete Form 990 and Audited Statements for 2004 and 2005.

See the report ..

	Feline Fun Fact

Stepping to The Beat of Their Own Drummer

Cats are amazing in many ways, but did you know that domestic cats are capable of sprinting at about 31 miles per hour? At times, it seems that they do this when we are headed down the stairs. Also notable, is that when cats walk or run, they step with both left legs, then both right legs, and so forth. Talk about coordination! When it comes to jumping, you may be surprised to learn that cats are capable of jumping 5 times as high as they are tall. Sound like true Olympians? Well, as you know, the only medals they truly desire, are our attention and love.