AdvoCat 2006 12

Greetings

We hope you’re having a good time celebrating the season with December festivities, friends and family visits. Don’t forget to include us in your guests’ plans. What a memorable present a tour could be. AdvoCats, this month we have news to report from year-end giving opportunities and education reports, to ground-breaking TV show production efforts and more. We want to extend our gratitude to you for a year of wonderful support in helping us go further than we had dreamed.

Happy Holidays!

Carole Baskin, Founder

	Year-End Giving, Shopping & Sending

Year End Giving: Do you want to know what’s on our list for Santa this year? We’ll give you a hint…it can’t fit in a stocking. Safety gates. They’re no Nintendo, but when it comes to the sanctuary, some needs are more functional than sexy. This one is a basic need for us, but a critical one. We need a dozen safety entrances.  Currently, some of our small cats can be locked in their lockout, or second half of their cage when we open the exterior door, but we want double doors on all of the cages in addition as added security. We bring this to your attention so that you might consider giving a year end tax-deductible gift toward this need. We appreciate you doing this.

Click here now…

Calling all “Santa’s helpers”. We have many unique holiday gift ideas at our on-line gift store. We make it easy to buy for that animal-loving friend or family member. Maybe you would like to adopt a certain cat, or surprise them with a t-shirt, a new hat, a hip field bag, or some photos.

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How about sending a holiday e-card to someone you love? Pick from adorable Big Cat Rescue cats complete with sounds effects like purring, with ease.

Click here now…

	Education is “King Cat” Around Here

The Education Department at Big Cat Rescue enjoyed a very busy month in November.  In addition to all the other events, tours and outreaches, we participated in the “Great American Teach In”.  This is an annual event sponsored by the public school system.  It’s a special opportunity to visit schools and share knowledge with a new generation of youngsters. With the generous help of our dedicated volunteers, the Education Department visited 9 schools in three counties during the 2006 Great American Teach-In, which was officially celebrated on November 15th this year.  As a part of this effort, 3 elementary schools and 6 middle schools were introduced to our Big Cat Rescue mission.  Over 600 students in addition to adults were taught about our sanctuary, the needs of our cats, and the need to conserve their habitats in the wild. Some students had already taken a tour of Big Cat Rescue.  Hopefully, those newly introduced to the sanctuary, will ask their parents and teachers to pay us a visit.  The Great American Teach In provided an opportunity to educate others on various ways they can assist Big Cat Rescue and help the cats.

	Prominent Opportunity

We know some of you tirelessly write letters for us on behalf of the big cats. You have never been acknowledged or patted on the back. We know your reward is simply knowing that you have helped. Well, we have a new feature in our Capitol Advantage site where you faithful supporters can post a photo, and your bio up to 500 characters for everyone to see.  http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/picturepages.tt  To post your photo and bio, you have to send a letter on one of the alerts and during the form filling portion, you will be asked to supply your photo and bio.  Call alerts don’t have a place for a photo, so don’t select a call alert to initiate the process.

There is an update coming to the site that will eventually post the top 10 activists on our main page at www.CatLaws.com  Want to keep your face and bio on the top of the heap?  Keep sending letters, but please, only one letter per animal issue.  I reserve veto power, so please, no photos of you with exotic pets (domestic pets are okay) and make sure your text looks professional.  This is what the legislators will see and you are representing Big Cat Rescue.

	Lights, Cameras, Big Cat Action!

No, we haven’t gone all Hollywood yet, but we did gain entry into the cable TV realm, with our new endeavor to expose our mission to a broader audience. Jamie Veronica, Honey Wayton, and Brian Czarnik have completed their course in television production and are poised to launch the first episode of our series on cable TV.  There is a lot of work in running a world class sanctuary that not many on the outside have ever seen before now. Our podcasts have been viewed more than 92,000 times in miniature. With this cable show, we can give the viewer 30 minutes of big cat action and human drama.  We will give you up to date information and we will tell you the truth about what is happening to cats in captivity and in the wild. Many times other shows will brush over sensitive topics, but here we will take a deeper look into them.  Our hope for the show is a simple hope…that people will watch it and then want to become more involved with helping the big cats either in captivity (with helping get legislation passed to keep them out of private hands) or in the wild (to conserve the habitat that is home to these great animals).  When the first show airs, we will let you know.

The web links below are where people can find the 60 plus podcasts that we have been producing since August. The podcasts can also be downloaded now to your iPod by subscribing to this link: http://savethecats.hipcast.com/rss/animaltalk.xml

You Tube http://www.youtube.com/user/BigCatRescue

My Space http://www.myspace.com/1BigCatRescue

Our site: http://bigcatrescue.org/podcats.htm

	Oprah and Big Cat Rescue

Susan Heeger included Big Cat Rescue in her article in “O”, the Oprah Magazine called “Where the Wild Things Go” as one of five accredited rescue facilities that provide a permanent home to big cats. We’re grateful to be included in this high profile publication. Read it online.

More on this…

	Photo Contest

Don’t miss your chance to win! Enter our photo contest now. Come out for a photo safari or regular tour to gather some stunning photos or use your own material to photograph. Don’t delay. The deadline is 12/31/06 for the photos to be in.

There will be one Grand Prize, 3 first prizes, 3 second prizes, and 3 third prizes ranging from t-shirts, tour passes and the Grand Prize of a Big Cat Rescue Expedition, including a photo safari and web exposure. There are 3 categories: wildlife, pets and landscape. Judging will be in January. Get clicking!

More details…

	Kids 4 Cats

Attention all campers! Big Cat Rescue has two new, exciting camp opportunities to tell you about. For the first time, we are offering camps during the Winter and Spring Holidays to a very limited number of lucky campers.  If you enjoyed the cats during the summer, imagine the fun of seeing them during cooler weather when they are more active!

The dates of the Winter Camp are Thursday December 28th through Saturday December 30th.   The hours are Thursday and Friday 9:30am-4:00pm & Saturday 9:30am-3:00pm.

The dates of the Spring Camp are Thursday March 22nd through Saturday March 24th.  The hours are Thursday and Friday 9:30am-4:00pm & Saturday 9:30am-3:00pm.

Camps will involve a hike to visit the cats once to twice per day. Topics will revolve around animals of all kinds, as well as environmental and conservation issues. Activities that reinforce the topic of the day will be fun and hands-on to make learning enjoyable. For pricing and reservations, or to ask any questions, please feel free to contact Coleen or Beth at 813-323-3265 or email us at kids@bigcatrescue.org.

	Feline Fact

The nose knows. Like snowflakes, no two cats are exactly alike. While they range in color, temperament, stature and vocalizations, each cat displays a most distinctive feature. It can be found in the unique pattern of ridges on his or her nose pad. Next time you are nuzzling your feline friend, take note.