August 3 2018

There are a lot of updates, today.  Nabisco, Freedom for Clover, Lucky, & Shamrock.  There is a new contest we need your votes on. Phone2Action update, and much more.

Thursday, August 2, 2018 Rehab Bobcats Lucky, Clover, and Shamrock were released together.  While we miss them we are extremely excited for these three to know the freedom they were born to have.

Brittany was trying to video the release and her phone lost wifi connection and the video cut off.  However, here is a short clip from intern Sam’s phone.  Afton did take a lot of video footage on the big video camera and on the 360 camera, too.  She will be uploading it on Tuesday.

Jamie’s photos of Clover, Lucky, & Shamrock’s release.

Armani leopard wants you to know about A NEW CONTEST — Please vote for Big Cat Rescue!

You can vote for us as often as you want each day through August 10th.

A local Tampa Bay residential realtor will be donating his commission from the sale of a home to the nonprofit that receives the most votes.

We won $1000 in this contest last year but can win much more for the cats this year if we garner the most votes! Thanks!!

Vote here: https://www.123formbuilder.com/form-3971092/

Lynda Licht’s Coordinator Notes for 7/29/2018

Today we were happy to see Jen R return after being away a few weeks. She just had a few hours so she came in to do the Keeper Tour. Intern Stephanie C took her Keeper Tour guide class and was able to do her first observation today.

Honey also came in for a few hours to do the Feeding tour. Having volunteers come in when they can just to do these special tours is such a great help.

Otherwise, our core volunteers and interns got their jobs done and we were also able to do the following:

Sarah D hung “Empty Cage” signs on all the empty cages. The patio of the recovery hospital was cleaned up and everything put away. The laundry cabinet is full again with all clean stuff. A meat inventory of the freezers was done at the end of the day. Interns Valerie and Teaugen got their needed operant conditioning signoffs.

Des hung a bunch of fly traps. Matt R was here too so Mac cougar got his spa day.

Thanks all for your hard work as always.

So much last minute stuff to do for this big event, but first: proof of life.

Devin Saari’s Coordinator Notes for 7/30/2018

We had a news crew here most of the day getting shots for tonight’s news broadcast. The rain held off today until about 4:00 PM which worked out well for projects and the day tours!

Projects done today:

-Hoovers cage was weed eaten and finished today
-The meat in the freezers was organized
-New bloodcicles were made

Inters and volunteers that needed sign-offs today got them!

That’s all for today

-Devin

See the news story:  See Hoover Tiger, Natalia leopard gets a sicle, and more.  Hear some great information while watching the cats.

Kathryn Stapleton’s Coordinator Notes for 7/31/2018

2 private tours and 2 afternoon tours. The rain held off so just some sprinkles. Nabisco and Mrs. Claws had a scrabble today and he went to Humane Society to see Dr. Justin. He is in the back of the recovery hospital and will be there at least 10 days.

That’s it for me today!
Kathryn

Stars Prize: Each month volunteers who dedicate 25% over their minimum hourly requirements are put into a pool from which one partner and one keeper is randomly selected to win a prize. The prize for this year will be a paw painting from one of the cats. We will be making all of these paw paintings in big batches. So while you will not get to choose the cat who paints your paw painting, you will get to choose from the collection of completed paintings.

• May Keeper – Rebecca Williams
• May Partner – Jessica Perlson
• June Keeper – Sharon Henry
• June Partner – Amber Johnson

Alexa and Amazon Pay make it easy to donate by just using your voice. Now more than ever, making a difference is simple and fast. Giving is now as easy as saying “Alexa, make a donation to Big Cat Rescue.

Your donation is processed with Amazon Pay using the information already stored in your Amazon account.

Here is an update on the states and legislators who received the most Calls of the Wald for the week of July 27th through August 3rd.  If your state and legislator is not on this list then it means you need to step up your efforts of making the Call of the Wild and ask more of your friends and family to make the call.

PLEASE, Make the Call of the Wild, today at BigCatAct.com

Poor Nabisco got into a scrabble with Mrs. Claws. He suffered a deep bite wound to the neck and several scratches to his chest. He was rushed to Humane Society of Tampa Bay where Dr. Boorstein attended to his wounds and neutered him.

He will be kept in the recovery in the cat hospital for at least 10 days.  He is resting comfortably and taking his meds like a good boy.

May = 3,195 intern hours contributed by 18 interns. That means interns collectively put in the same hours as more than 19 full time paid staff would have during that same time.

May = 2,758 volunteer hours contributed by 86 volunteers. That means volunteers collectively put in the same hours as more than 17 full time paid staff would have during that same time.

June = 3,773 intern hours contributed by 16 interns. That means interns collectively put in the same hours as more than 23 full time paid staff would have during that same time.

June = 2,833 volunteer hours contributed by 89 volunteers. That means volunteers collectively put in the same hours as more than 17 full time paid staff would have during that same time.

If you look to any other animal sheltering type group you will find that they usually have dozens of paid staff if they have our level of income. Thanks to volunteers and interns we only have to pay about 15 staff members because volunteers and interns are doing all of the cat care and most of the guest relations. That means more of the money earned and donated can go to the cats and to ending the abuses that cause so many big cats to be discarded.

The Walkabout is months away, but over half of the tickets have already been purchased. If you know of someone that is interested in attending as a guest, please encourage them to purchase tickets early. This event always sells out. This year’s Wildcat Walkabout will be held on November 3.

Read more here: https://bigcatrescue.org/safari-days/

Happy Anniversary to the following Big Cat Rescuers!

Matt Ruszczyk – 1999
Howard Baskin – 2003
Sarah DuPree – 2013
Amanda Wright – 2016
Marilyn Halpin – 2016
Bethany Smith – 2017
Fred Pagan – 2017
Michael Heap – 2017