Dec 26 2016

Keeper Log

Priya seemed to enjoy Keeper Barbara and Gale feeding her from a feeding stick and ate all her food. Good girl, Priya!

Cats on the Animal Observation Sheet – IMPORTANT NOTE: When a cat is put on the Observation sheet it does not necessarily mean anything is wrong with the cat. It just means the keepers noticed something different so as a precaution that cat is on the Animal Observation Sheet to be checked on. The majority of the time the cat is just fine be we like to be extra careful and err on the side of cation, just in case.

Keeper Lisa reported Sassy Caracal drinking extra water.

This morning Joseph ate 5 lbs of red meat and pork. He is doing fine and will be offered more food later in the day. Yesterday morning he at 7 lbs of turkey then in the evening ate another 2 lbs of turkey and some red meat. He ate 8 lbs of turkey the day before.

Zeus Tiger ate 4 lbs of red meat cut up in small pieces and ate his ground beef. Yesterday morning he refused to eat breakfast but at noon he ate 8 lbs of ground beef and cut up red meat. Then last night he ate another 4 lbs of ground beef and cut up red meat. That is 12 lbs. GOOD BOY!!

Zouletta is eating. She ate overnight last night and then ate another 2 oz of cut up red meat and ground beef this morning. Yesterday morning she ate, she ate a noon, too.

Cameron refused his breakfast this morning so more food is being offered. He did eat good the last few days and LOVED his Christmas turkey.

Mrs. Claws left a little of her mush this morning.

Nirvana ate good this morning. Nirvana is 22 years old.

Keeper Rebecca reported Little Dove did not eat all her breakfast so the keepers are taking her more food, too.

Keeper Barbie reported Nikita Lion left some of her mush this morning. Did You Know? You can watch Nikita Lion live from TWO streaming web cams? Find their links at BigCatCams.com

Keeper Alyssa reported that Hoover ate 10 lbs 8ozs of pork, chicken, and red meat this morning. WAY TO GO, HOOVER!!

TJ Tiger – Yesterday he ate 5 oz of turkey breast and skipped the rest of his breakfast but ate 7 lbs or red meat and turkey a little later. Then a little later he ate 3 lbs of chicken and lamb. He sure kept the keepers running yesterday. But after getting him to eat a total of 1o lb 5 ozs the keeper felt all the running was worth it.

Frosty sure ate good yesterday.

Facebook Live Videos

VIDEO ONE: Seth Tiger Loves Blood Pops

Is it wrong to say that a nearly 400 lb tiger looks “precious” while enjoying a blood cicle?

VIDEO TWO: Big Cats Get Cicles

Volunteers, Rebecca and Erin, hand out blood cicles to the big cats before breaking for Christmas Dinner.

VIDEO THREE: A Christmas Visit With Sabre Leopard

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Sabre the black leopard at Big Cat Rescue.

Helping Save Big Cats

This year we have 12 new reasons to ask you to please consider making a year-end, tax-deductible donation to Big Cat Rescue. Our precious cats can’t speak for themselves, so we are appealing to you on their behalf during this season of peace, love and giving.

As 2016 comes to a close, we are so thankful for your donations, which allowed us to rescue and become the permanent home for 12 more exotic cats! In April we rescued Hoover, a former circus tiger from Peru. Kept in a tiny circus cage for most of his life, Hoover has really blossomed at our sanctuary and loves swimming in his lake.

Then in October, we took in bobcats Dryden, Kewlona, Nabisco and Smalls along with cougars Josie and Sassy from a troubled sanctuary in South Dakota that lost its USDA license. Sassy, the oldest of the group, will be 18 in January (over 100 in human years). During her difficult life, she has been bounced around to at least 4 different facilities. At some point the tips of her ears froze off. But her suffering is behind her now and we plan to spoil her for the rest of her life!

In November we rescued five tigers – Andy, Charaka, Gabrielle, Priya and Seth – from a failed facility in Colorado. Four of the tigers settled in nicely, but almost immediately we knew something was very wrong with 13-year-old tigress Priya. She wouldn’t eat and her belly was distended. We rushed her into surgery and discovered an infected uterus and 20-pound mass that needed to be removed. Had our skilled vets not realized she needed emergency surgery, she would have died. Thanks to your donations, our amazing vet team saved Priya’s life! She is still recovering and we hope she will soon be able to enjoy her life in good health here at Big Cat Rescue.

As you are making your year-end, tax-deductible donations, we hope you will consider Big Cat Rescue. We are so very grateful for your support of our sanctuary and cats! This year, thanks to The SHARE Foundation, Fields Galley Private Foundation and an anonymous donor, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar for the first $38,000 in donations, so it will go twice as far for the cats!

Best wishes from everyone at Big Cat Rescue for a purr-fectly healthy and happy New Year!

To securely donate online, click here: https://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/51389/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=12026

Or mail your check by December 31st to Big Cat Rescue at 12802 Easy Street, Tampa, Florida 33625

Viewer Videos From Explore.org/bigcatrescue

VIDEO ONE: TJ‘s Discovery

TJ was funny today, he found something in the pond, a big piece of wood. By Ruxandra

VIDEO ONE: TJ Tiger

VIDEO TWO: Nikita Lioness

Niki was too funny today and I couldn’t miss that 🙂 By Ruxandra

VIDEO THREE: Merry Christmas
First I wanna wish you and all yours Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! I made a video trying to select some of the funniest moments I have on my videos, was very difficult, there are so many and I wanted to make it shorter, but was impossible, I still didn’t put so many of them. I hope that you will like it, is my way of saying thanks to you and BCR and Explore and to all the wonderful cats. Happy Holidays! ~Ruxandra

KEEPER NOTES:

MAC COUGAR: There were no tours today on Christmas since we were closed to the public. The sanctuary was so quiet in the afternoon and I was ready to leave but My coordinator asked me if I wanted to give out Enrichment so of course I did. Mac cougar is known to eat paper so he can’t get spice bags or perfume tubes, but often we take the jar of spices out to him and just throw some on his platform. Today I chose to take out some ground cloves. The strong smell of the cloves drew him out of his den box and he came over to chat with me. I sat there thinking of my mom’s traditional holiday cake that she used to bake, but I think that Mac was thinking more about something like a spiral ham. He did some grooming and a lot of purring and then he opted to get up, get some water, and go back in his den. ~ Lynda L

KEISHA TIGER: Most of the tigers got turkeys for breakfast this Christmas morn. Keisha displays perfectly the tryptophan- induced nap mode that all the cats enjoyed today. ~Keeper Lynda L