June 23 2017

Big Cat Updates

Gale Ingham added a new post to Important Info » Important Updates: Thursday 6/22

We had a work group today and started on the soon to be small cat vacation cage.

We also trimmed up and cut down some dead trees.

Cat moves today to and from Vacation Rotation cage: Sapphire out Jasmine in. Mac Cougar is holding out for Matt to come and escort him home tomorrow morning.

It was really hot today so picky cats only ate soso. Seth needed a hose down now and then to cool him off.

Remembering and celebrating the life of TJ The Water Tiger. BigCatTV.com
In Loving Memory Of TJ The Water Tiger

Keeper Corner

Keeper Desmond Fowles: Cameron and Zabu completely out of it.

Keeper Desmond Fowles: I just asked them for a funny pose and this is what I got. Lol.

Keeper Marie Schoubert got a great snapshot of Armani: Don’t hate me because I’m BEAUTIFUL

People Often Ask

Who are the Trolls?

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll’s amusement.

Carole speaking here. When we came home with 56 bobcats and lynx that we rescued from the fur farm in 1993, the first thing I did was to call our local zoo, to ask about best practices in feeding and housing. They slammed the phone down on me. I tried some other well known zoos and got the same reaction. I was horrified. 56 little lives were counting on me to get it right and there was no where for me to go. There was no Internet. I could find nothing at the library about how to do it. I desperately wanted to save these cats from being killed for their fur and from my own ignorance, but didn’t know where to turn.

The only people who would embrace me were the breeders, dealers and cub pimps who were nice to me because they hoped to profit from my ignorance and passion for the animals. I got a lot of bad advice from them, and you guys know that story, but what I want to illustrate here is that almost every day you are meeting someone online who was like me. If you take the time, as LaWanna frequently does, to be kind to them and answer their questions, you will find that they almost always aren’t trolls.

They might have been sent to us by the bad guys, to re-post the crap they’ve been fed, because the bad guys have been banned and can’t post it, but they don’t know any better. All they know is that they love big cats and want to be part of a group that understands that passion. Millennials, especially, are known for wanting to get all sides of a story before making up their minds, but they were born into an era of instant info, so they don’t want to read long texts. They want to ask and get an answer. That’s what their world has always been; just ask Google or Siri and get your answer back in a sentence or two. Unfortunately, Google and Siri often serve up whatever the popular view is, and a LOT of people believe it without thinking any further.

When someone comes to our social sites and says something hateful, or asks a question that we think is ignorant, we need to celebrate the fact that they cared enough about big cats to speak up. If we take the time to answer them with love in our words and tone, we will be cultivating the most powerful voices for the cats. LaWanna and I have seen this happen thousands of times. The people who are often the most abrasive and reluctant to be educated, many times turn out to be the best champions for the cats. They still have one foot in that industry of pay to play schemes, and thus have the ability to bring more people over into a more enlightened way of thinking.

I don’t always have time, or remember, to call LaWanna before I go LIVE, so if you are there and see someone who seems to be a troll, take that opportunity to turn them a powerful ally for the cats. They want to be part of a group who is making a difference and that’s YOU.

Where’s Waldo… Uh, I mean the tiger

Viewer Teresa Alvarez sent this fun Where’s Waldo style photo in. Can YOU find the tiger?

Viewer Videos From Explore.org/bigcatrescue

Here is a list of YouTube channels that feature videos of the cats here:

Jamie Veronica: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsY6X3rUv8UlIUbrxNeu-Aw
Susann https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFOZiTvzKRvj-oVbzdByvg
Ruxandra https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvCsjKptd1gM9BhfDkGQGNg
Donna P: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcFbhMc8Sqr-8MreWuYr4Bg
Shawna https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfl9S-vDPJIgjl8QpM6Aypw
Cathy S https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ynHBFLKj0BVnK5jo2gTnw
Janie M https://www.youtube.com/user/donutgirl100
Jaime T: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsY_oF0NhXc5OS8CcTaUi2A/videos

Viewer Pix

Viewer Kristine & Keeper Afton: Good morning everyone! Happy Friday! I wish all of you and wonderful day and a fantastic weekend! 🙂 Here’s my daily photo of precious, beautiful Hoover……? ? ? ? ?

Viewer Kristine: Hoover looks so happy!

WANTED – Graphic Artists

Carole is looking for a graphic artist who really gets what we are all about and would would like to help us with some graphics for shirts. If that is you or if you know someone like that, please have them email Carole at cat@bigcatrescue.org