July 3 2018

Lynda Licht’s Coordinator Notes for 7/1/2018

How can it already be July? I know it’s hot enough for sure. Just a quick rain around 11:30 am today so all tours went out as scheduled.

Things that got done today:

• Cleaned the dump truck.
• Interns helped cleaning small cats for sign-offs.
• Valerie took feeding class.
• The project was to clear out along the tunnel leading from Kali/Cubs to Vacation Rotation. Vines were taken down all along the tunnel and a nice clear path to walk was created along the south side of the tunnel. The north side was weed-eated and cleaned up as well.
• Interns got needed operant signoffs.
• Rebecca made more cicles and the freezer in the E Cabin is full.
• Matt R was here on a Sunday and Mac had a spa day.

Picky cats ate pretty well today. Tomorrow is ivermectin so ALL cats have a container.

Another great Sunday.

Lynda

Devin Saari’s Coordinator Notes for 7/2/2018

Great day today! The cats all got ivermectin today. The cougar cubs tunnel project was almost finished today only about another 5-10 feet to clear out.

Both meat freezers were organized. Picky cats did well today. The cicle cats loved their icy treats. The rain held off today until 4:30 PM which was great!  The wasp nests at the party house were removed. We have been doing laundry all day there is lots of it.

Simba is still really liking shrimp.  The cages on the cleaning slab are clean and ready to be put away when dry.

That’s all for today!
-Devin

Keep an eye on our main Facebook page this evening.  There will be a presentation to the Interns about the Bobcat Rehab Program.  Carole will stream it live at https://www.facebook.com/pg/bigcatrescue/videos/ Come watch and chat with it.

Presention will be done by Jamie Veronica
Tuesday, July 3rd 2018
Presentation starts promptly at 7:30 pm.

We now have PopSockets available on Smile.Amazon.com!
Just search Big Cat Rescue PopSockets!

You can donate to the cats at NO COST TO YOU when you select BCR as your charity on Amazon Smile and shop Smile.Amazon.com instead of Amazon.com. It is exactly the same as regular Amazon EXCEPT when you use the Smile URL Amazon donates .5% of your purchase to BCR

Noel the bobcat was hit by a car and left for dead on the side of the road on Christmas. A wonderful family took action and gave Noel a second chance at life. After a long road to recovery, Noel was set free back into the wild. Learn more about Noel at BigCatRescue.org/noel/

Andy is a volunteer at Big Cat Rescue dedicated to saving big cats, and you can too! https://bigcatrescue.org/get-involved/volunteer/  (More about Andy, below the photo)

Andy is helping out in the gift shop today! He is working on a contest for the volunteers. Can you guess how many batteries are in the jar??

One of the many exciting things we do at Big Cat Rescue is give educational tours of the sanctuary. This allows the public to see the cats and the incredibly high quality of care we give them. On these tours, the guests listen to the cats’ stories on headsets that give clear up-to-date information about each one of cats.

These stories are important to hear because our cats come from a wide variety of situations.  The cats deserve their stories to be told and their stories not only help us raise awareness for cats but also help the person on the tour fall in love with the cats just like you did.

These headsets have one large problem though; batteries are expensive. Every month we need to replace the batteries in all of the headsets. This costs roughly about $200 a month or $2400 a year. Over the past few months, I have been working on changing our system over to rechargeable batteries. The initial set-up cost for this is high but we will break even in about six months with our fans help. This means the money that we were spending on batteries can now go back to the cats.

For every rechargeable AA battery that is donated from our Amazon wishlist, you will essentially be giving the cats a small donation every month after we break even on the initial set-up cost, talk about warm and fuzzies! Below you will find a link to our wishlist on Amazon. If you would like to donate we have two different batteries packs to choose from
– Tenergy AA – 24 pack of batteries for $32.99
– Tenergy AA – 1 single battery for $1.39

Click here to help https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3EI355RSZ6JEX

We would love your support!
– Andrew Sardone -AKA Gift Shop Andy

Andrew Sardone started volunteering at Big Cat Rescue in May of 2016. Unlike most of the volunteers, he has decided to stay working in the gift shop instead of maintaining the cat’s food and enclosures.

The gift shop has technical challenges that he is familiar with and likes to use his strengths and experience in IT and store management to help make sure things are running smoothly for the purchasing public and also for people going on our tours.

One of the many ways we help our cats is by raising awareness on our tours and helping the public purchase something to help them remember the amazing day they had at Big Cat Rescue.

When a guest purchases something from the gift shop 100% of the profits go directly to the cats so it’s important the gift shop works well. In order to keep things running smoothly Andy as well and many other amazing people are needed to keep the wheels of the gift shop spinning.

Jamie Veronica took a crew to see if they could help a bobcat who was hit by a car at 2:15 today in Mulberry, Florida. Carole called the rehabber who had given us Foxtrot and her husband also went to see if it was a bobcat.  They braved time, distance, and weather.   Get the full story at https://bigcatrescue.org/july-3-2018-bobcat-rescue-attempt/