Happy Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for, and YOU are right there at the top of my list!

This issue has some recent rescues who are really thankful that you have made it possible for us to go on a moment’s notice and save big cats in need.

It also has some great freebies for you, including our extremely popular big cat themed Thanksgiving and holiday e-Cards, screensavers, flash games, computer wallpapers, book marks, story books and purrrsonalized holiday letter programs.  In our e-Cards section you can set up all of your holiday cards to go out at a specified date in the future.  It’s all fun and it’s all free!  http://bigcatfun.com/thanksgiving.html

You can also beat the mobs at the malls by doing your holiday shopping from your computer or mobile device and here your purchases actually save lives.  Even the animal lover who has everything will be delighted by some of the one of a kind big cat goodies we offer.

There are lots of free things you can do to help the cats too in our voting and letter writing requests below.  Thanks again for caring about the big cats and giving them so much to be thankful for.

Stalk us on http://twitter.com/bigcatrescue or join more than 33,000 of our facebook fans.

	Owners Die & Mountain Lion Pets Need Rescue

If only they could speak to us in a language that we understand.  Then we might know the horrors they have survived and be more inclined to protect others from enduring their fate.

I’ll share with you what I do know and hope that will inspire you to help these cougars and to do all you can to end the trade in exotic cats. Find out how the owners died and what happened to their animals when no one was left to care for them.  Story & lots of photos before and after here:

http://bigcatrescue.org/000news/0articlesbybcr/2010cougarrescue.htm

	Holiday Gifts for You & the Cats

For Us:  Big Cat Wishlist Items:

12 Enclosure Locks: $144

With the remodeling of some of the current enclosures and the construction of new enclosures we are in need of a dozen more locks.  These locks are keyed alike and weather resistant.  Keep the cats safe and secure with a donation towards the purchase of these locks.

New 12′ Ladder: $250

Our 12′ ladder has finally surrendered to the years of use and is no longer stable or safe to climb.  Big Cat Rescuers use this tall ladder for a number of maintenance projects around the sanctuary including; repairing enclosure roofs, trimming oak and palm trees, painting enclosures and more.  Help Big Cat Rescuers keep the enclosures in tip top shape and the grounds landscaped with a donation towards the purchase of a new ladder.

To help with these you can contribute here: http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/

For You or to give the Cat Lover in your life:

http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/Paw Paintings by the cats are available Onsite and Online:

Paw Paintings are unique pieces of art created by the big cats.

Non-toxic paints are added to archival quality canvas boards that
are then presented to the cats as a form of enrichment.  Big Cat
Rescue has an extensive enrichment program with a focus on
making captive life as entertaining and fulfilling as possible for the
big cats.  The cats paw at and rub on the canvases creating beautiful
works of art the funds from which go directly to their care.

The Fire Series is a combination of red, yellow, orange, brown and
black paints.  The Aqua Series is a combination of blue, teal, purple,
and black paints. Sizes available are 16″x20″ – $150, 11″x14″ – $100,
and 8″x10″ – $50. Each Paw Painting includes a 4×6 photo of the cat
creating their Paw Painting.  Every painting is unique and while the colors
are the same the pattern and texture of each Paw Painting will vary.

http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/

Polls show that the top 4 out of 5 most wanted holiday gifts are i gadgets.  Be sure to pick up your big cat covers for iPhones, iPads and more in our Zazzle store.

http://www.zazzle.com/bcrcats/gifts?cg=196687643997152006

Holiday Grrr-eeting Cards:

Send a custom Holiday Grr-reeting to a loved one, family member or friend.

On the bottom of the glossy 8×10 photo it will read -“Happy Holidays to (Name Here) from Alex the Tiger”   20 Custom Holiday Grrr-eeting Photos are available online.

http://www.bigcatrescue.biz/

	Big Cat Health Updates

Two of our elderly cats came to the end of their journey here last month.  Shasta the serval who was 18 and Bagheera the black leopard who was 21.  Even though both had lived far longer than most of their kind do, it didn’t make it any easier to say “Goodbye.”  Thanks to Big Cat Rescuer, Julie Hanan, each of our cats who have died have a web page devoted to their tributes.

Read more about Shasta the Serval

Read more about Bagheera the Black Leopard

In the health care department, it starts sounding like the sick list at church as we all age and deal with the ravages of time.

Selena Bobcats’s eye is all better and she is back with the bobcat clan and doing fine.  Cody Cougar chewed a palm frond and got it stuck across the roof of his mouth, but it has been dislodged and he is doing fine.  Bobby Blue Rose Bobcat’s eyes looked weepy so she is in the Cat Hospital getting eye drops several times a day.  Kanawha Siberian Lynx (age 21) continues to have seizures when she hears the mower, so we are not mowing around her. Dances With Wolves only wants slurpy foods now, like livers and boneless chicken, but at 19 years of age she can have what she wants.  Freckles the liger is 17 and already about 10 years older than any other liger I have heard of.  She is getting fussier and fussier about her food and has a hard time getting around due to her back legs just not being as reliable as they used to be.  Her pain meds are in her food, so getting her to take the meds is a challenge when she isn’t food motivated.  A couple of miracle cats, thanks largely to keepers like Marie, are Alachua Bobcat (age 22) and Summer Bobcat (age 21.)  They had gotten skinny and threadbare as cats this age often do, but Marie must have found the Fountain of Youth because they don’t look even half their age.

	Tiger Temple Abuse

Our friend, Sybelle Foxcroft reports, “In 2007, I worked within the Tiger Temple, Thailand. I became a witness to the systematic genocide of the tigers within temple by way of wildlife trade and many varying abuses.  The tigers are abused in every possible way from the collection of their own urine to be squirted in their faces, to beatings so violent, and then the ultimate abuse – sold into the wildlife trade doomed to death.

In Laos the tigers are transferred either to illegal tiger farms or killed instantly for body parts or fur. However, all tigers in these farms will eventually be murdered for money, for greed.  This is the foundation of the Tiger Temple.”

Sybelle needs 10,000 signatures before her petition will even be considered by the government.  Please add your name to saving this Temple tigers here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/The-Wildlife-Trade-Tiger-Temple-Behind-the-Cloak-of-Buddha/

	Some Grrrreat Videos to Share & Enjoy

See us fighting for Tony the Truck Stop Tiger on CNN HLN Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell: http://bigcatrescue.org/FreeTony.htm

See us on Orlando TV talking about how petting a tiger cub leads to a life of abuse:  http://www.clickorlando.com/news/25851692/detail.html

We have gone undercover at “pay to play” exhibits to expose the cruelty that results.  You can watch our video at: http://bigcatrescue.org/video/00389.htm

Need a daily fix of cute new videos of big cats being charming?  Check out our new YouTube page for all the mini clips we take via iPhone during the day to post at:

http://www.youtube.com/DailyBigCat

If you like our videos be sure to subscribe to them on iTunes and give us a nice rating there so that others can find us too!  Carry us in your pocket on your iPhone or iPad.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/big-cat-rescue/id284875889

	Big Cat Celebrity News

Kate Walsh, star of Private Practice, has been tweeting about how much she loved Big Cat Rescue after her visit this morning: http://twitter.com/#!/katewalsh She was in town to promote her new Boyfriend perfume and found out about Big Cat Rescue from a coffee table book that is found in most local hotels.  Being a big cat lover, she just had to check it out.  Kate was so pleased with the sanctuary that she agreed to join our Celebrity Advisory Board.

Some celebrities, like Kate Walsh, get it and others don’t.  In back to back celebrity stories the common thread was how to treat a tiger.

The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star wed the “I Kissed a Girl” hitmaker in India last month at an exotic resort situated close to a tiger sanctuary.  Russell Brand denied the gift of a tiger to his new bride Katy Perry to the British TV show Loose Women saying, “I’m a vegetarian, you don’t give people tigers. It’s stupid, it’s dangerous. The tiger won’t like it.”

Meanwhile, Celebrities Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green decided it would be a great photo op to play with a chained adult tiger and bottle feed a baby tiger.  There is no good place that will let you touch a tiger cub, but Karl Mitchell was the owner of this facility.  He has a notorious criminal, as well as animal abuse, record that stretches back decades to 1985. Recently featured on Animal Planet’s “Fatal Attractions,” he was seen inside his tiger cages slapping and boxing his tigers in the face.  California’s Fish and Game, after seizing animals from him in the past, have characterized him as “a dangerous person and a serious liability to any person or animal he’s involved with.”

Many years ago, Big Cat Rescue took in two of Mitchell’s abused cats.  After her rescue, Dara, the cougar, died from a fatal brain infection from the severity of Mitchell’s blows to her skull.  Shaquille, the black leopard, received beatings that crushed his eye sockets and caused permanent eye damage that he suffered from all of his life. Help us end these backyard breeders’ pay to play schemes here:

http://capwiz.com/bigcatrescue/issues/alert/?alertid=19643501&type=ML

	Free Holiday Day e-Cards

Your FREE eCards account you will be able to choose from thousands of cards & have the following benefits:

*Send an unlimited number of eCards

*Send the same eCard to multiple people at once

*Your own COMPLETELY PRIVATE address book so you can send eCards faster

*Pre-make your eCards and schedule the future dates you want them to go out (up to 999 days in advance)

*Keep track of the eCards you have sent

*See when your friends pick up their eCards

http://www.bigcatfun.com/ecards/

 

	Big Cat Rescue Sponsors Rep from ITC

The International Tiger Coalition (ITC) welcomes Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s convening of world leaders at the International Tiger Conservation Forum from 21-24 November in St. Petersburg. Big Cat Rescue has sponsored the attendance by tiger expert, Judy Mills. In response to this historic and unprecedented event, the ITC offers wholehearted support to tiger range states and other participants in achieving the Forum’s ultimate goal of doubling the wild tiger population by 2022.

Despite the fact that virtually all trade in tiger parts, products, and derivatives is illegal under both national and international laws, tigers are still being killed for their body parts, while tiger parts and products continue to enter illegal markets from both wild and captive-bred sources. Therefore, the ITC is encouraged by statements made in the St. Petersburg Declaration and in the Global Tiger Recovery Programme – both of which are expected to be adopted at the Forum – aimed at combating tiger-related wildlife crime and eliminating demand for tiger parts and products.

“We endorse the stated goal of strengthening the effectiveness of existing tiger-trade bans, with an aim of eradicating all trade in all tiger parts, products and derivatives,” said ITC Moderator Judy Mills. “This is critical to the achievement of doubling tiger numbers by 2022.”

Furthermore, ITC strongly endorses recent recommendations made by the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) and INTERPOL on tiger trade. Big Cat Rescue sponsored the booth at this event. These include greater use of intelligence-led law enforcement, increased cooperation among law-enforcement authorities, demand-reduction campaigns aimed at consumers, and prevention of illegal trade in tiger parts and derivatives from captive-bred sources. Big Cat Rescue has urged the US Fish & Wildlife Service to show their support in ending the trade in tigers by rescinding the “generic” tiger loophole that allows backyard breeders to breed and discard tigers with virtually no oversight.

	2 Ways to Vote Fur Us

WEDU Be More Contest

Vote for our video in WEDU’s Be More Relevant cat-gory on this link.  You will need to click the radio button next to our Big Cat Rescue video and then scroll to the bottom of the page to click VOTE.  A vote a day by you and your friends will hopefully mean a big win for the cats!

http://www.wedu.org/bemore/vote/relevant

Animal Rescue Site Contest for $10,000

Vote for us at www.theanimalrescuesite.com and we could win $10,000 to help big cats in need.  The grand prize is a $10,000 grant, and they will be awarding many other grants to rescue groups with the most votes.

Think how many big cats we could help for $10,000!

Help us win! All you have to do is fill in the Shelter name as Big Cat Rescue, select FL, and then vote. You can vote once a day, every day, from September 20th through December 19th, 2010. Every time you vote, or tell a friend to vote, you are making a huge difference for us.  We are in 4th place in FL, but need to go to #1 nationwide.  Vote today!

Visit: www.theanimalrescuesite.com Type in Big Cat Rescue and Tampa to find us.